As yet the ice was thin, but so
much the worse. It was thick enough to prevent them from using the
canoe, but too thin to bear their weight, and they now saw that they
were _prisoners upon the island_!

It was not without some feelings of alarm that they made this discovery;
but their fears were allayed by reflecting, that they could remain upon
the island until the ice either thawed away or became strong enough to
bear them, and then they could cross upon it to the northern shore.

With this consolation, therefore, they set about making their temporary
quarters upon the island as snug as circumstances would permit. Their
apprehensions, however, began to return again, when several days had
passed over, and the ice neither grew any thinner nor any thicker, but
seemed to remain at a standstill. In the early part of the morning it
was almost strong enough to bear them; but during the day the sun melted
it, until it was little better than a scum over the surface of the
water. The alarm of our voyageurs increased. Their provisions were
nearly out. There was no game on the islet--not so much as a bird--for
they had beaten every bush, and found nothing. Once or twice they
thought of launching their canoe and breaking a way for it through the
ice. But they knew that this proceeding would be one of much labour as
well as danger. The islet was full ten miles from the shore, and they
would therefore have to break the ice for ten miles. Moreover, to stand
up in a bark canoe, so as to get at the work, would be a difficult task.
It could not be accomplished without endangering the equilibrium of the
vessel, and indeed without upsetting it altogether. Even to lean
forward in the bow would be a perilous experiment; and under these
considerations the idea of breaking a way was abandoned. But their
provisions were at length entirely exhausted, and what was to be done?
The ice was still too weak to carry them. Near the shore it might have
been strong enough, but farther out lay the danger. There they knew it
was thinner, for it had not frozen over until a later period. It would
have been madness to have risked it yet. On the other hand, they were
starving, or likely to starve from hunger, by staying where they were.
There was nothing eatable on the island. What was to be done? In the
water were fish--they doubted not that--but how were they to catch them?
They had tried them with hook and line, letting the hook through a