in the throat, and piled up high
in the air, looking like ice-bergs that had floated from the North
Pole. You saw the stream, at all times, rapid, and now, swollen vastly
beyond its ordinary proportions, rushing with ten-fold force, and
hurrying, in its channel, with hoarse sounds, the ice-cakes, which, in
the emulous race, grated against, and, sometimes, mutually destroyed
one another, to drive some under the icy barrier, thence to glide away
to the ocean, and to toss others high above the foaming torrent on the
collected masses, more gradually to find their way to the same bourne.
Looking away from the channel, one saw the cakes caught in the eddies,
whirled up against the banks, and, in some instances, forced into
smoother and shoaler water, where they grounded, or were floated into
little creeks and bays formed by the irregularities of the shores.
These quiet places were, of course, on the side nearest the town, the
opposite bank being too abrupt and the water too deep, for there
was the channel, and there the water tore along with the greatest
violence.

In one of these placid bays a party of school-boys were amusing
themselves with getting upon the loose blocks and pushing them about
like boats. The amusement appeared to be unattended with danger, the
place being so far from the current, and the water but two or
three feet deep. The children, therefore, were but little noticed,
especially as they were at quite a distance from where the multitude
of spectators was assembled, being considerably higher up and near the
flat-land, bearing the undignified name which only historical accuracy
compels us to introduce. After a time a cake, on which one of the boys
was standing, began slowly to slip away from the shore. So gradually
was this done that it was unobserved by the boys themselves until it
had quite separated itself from the neighborhood of the other cakes,
so that no assistance could be rendered, when one of his companions
cried out to the little fellow upon it, to push for the shore. This
he had already been attempting to do, but in spite of all exertions
he was unable to come nearer. On the contrary, it was evident he was
receding. The water had now become so deep that his pole could no
longer reach the bottom. The current had drawn in the cake, and was
sweeping it with its precious freight to destruction. The children set
up a cry of alarm, which was heard by the spectators below, and first
attracted their a