re several islands set in it. Most of its surface was frozen, but the
ice was very thin. William stopped the procession before we reached the
bad stretch and went hastily over a part of it. Under his single weight
we could see the ice-sheet undulating. It had been our rule that ice was
not safe unless it took three blows of the axe to bring water, but this
ice gave water at a blow. When William returned he made quite an
harangue, which Arthur interpreted. He thought we could make it past the
mouth of the creek, and if we could we should find good going to Moses'
Village. But we must go just as fast as we could travel; we must not let
the sled stop an instant. The ice would bend and crack; but he thought
if we went quickly we could get across. So for nearly a quarter of a
mile we rushed that sled over "rubber" ice that swayed and cracked and
yielded under our feet and under the sled, until we reached the bank of
one of the islands, and then again we launched her and ran with her to
the shore. Once one of my feet broke through, and immediately the water
welled up all around--with the steamboat channel underneath--but
without pause we increased our speed and made the strong shore ice
safely at last. No man will ever doubt the plasticity, the "viscosity"
of ice, as it used to be styled in the old glacier controversies, who
has passed over the "rubber" ice that forms under certain circumstances
and at certain seasons on these rivers.

We would never, I am sure, have attempted that ice had not William been
with us. We would have struck a blow with the axe and declared it
unsafe. Of course, it was unsafe; the whole journey was unsafe, but I am
convinced that this thin, continuous sheet of ice, cushioned actually
upon the surface of the water out of which it was growing, was really
safer than much of the thicker but brittle, unsupported ice we had
unhesitatingly come over. Chemists tell us that certain substances in
the act of formation, which they call nascent substances, are
extraordinarily active and potent, and it may be that ice in the same
state has a special tenacity of texture which belongs to that state
alone. I wish that I could have measured the thickness of that ice.
Where my foot went through I know it was very thin, but its thickness I
will not venture to guess. There was the distinct feeling that the water
was bearing the ice up and when it was punctured the water welled up
with pressure behind it.

Beyond the K