on Bay. This has been for generations a
favourite shooting ground of the Indians, and here for the day the two
lads and their Indian attendants came. They had made the journey very
early in the morning, and so their dogs had had no trouble with the ice,
which in the night frost had quickly become firm and hard. In the
friendly shelter of some trees they had secured their dog-trains. Here
building a fire, their Indian cook had a second breakfast soon ready for
them. While eating it they could hear the cries of many wild birds,
that the now strong south wind was bringing over them. Flocks of wild
geese, principally the waveys, a very much smaller variety than the
great grey geese, were quite numerous, as well as an occasional one of
the larger kinds. Swans flew by in straight lines with such rapidity
that many a shot was lost in trying to shoot them. Pelicans were also
there in great numbers, and the boys were intensely interested in their
awkward, and at times comical, movements. As they are not good for
food, only one or two were shot, as curiosities. Cranes stalked along
on their long, slender legs in the marshy places, while snipe and many
similar birds ran rapidly along the sandy shores. The ducks were
everywhere, and so the shooting was everything that our enthusiastic
hunters could desire.

The Indians, toward noon, began to get uneasy about the return trip, on
account of the effects of the sun's rays and the south winds on the ice.
They suggested an early start, but so fascinated had the boys become in
the shooting that they kept putting it off from hour to hour. However,
the return trip was at length begun, and then the boys saw the wisdom of
the Indians' suggestion for an earlier start, and heartily wished they
had agreed to it. Playgreen Lake, which in the morning seemed still one
great mass of glittering ice, now appeared half broken up. Wherever the
ice had burst in the winter, and there frozen up again, now there were
long channels of open water. Suspicious-looking pools of water were on
the ice in many places, and so the outlook for the return trip was
anything but pleasant. Frank's train was the first to come to grief.
His heavy dogs in passing over a dark-looking patch of ice broke
through, and were with much difficulty pulled out. What amazed him and
Alec was that the ice was still over two feet thick where the accident
occurred, but under the effects of the rays of the sun it had simply