like this in my ice-boat, but we should
long since have been sleeping our last sleep beneath the snow-wreaths,
had we lost our way upon the floes."

At daybreak La Salle awoke, but turned again to his pillow, as he noted
the snow-flakes form in tiny drifts against the lower window panes; and
it was nine o'clock before the tired sportsmen completed their hasty
toilet, and seated themselves around the breakfast table.

CHAPTER III.

THE SILVER THAW.--A FOX HUNT.--ANTHONY WORRELL'S DOG.

The snow at nine o'clock had ceased to fall, but had given place to a
thick hail, which rattled merrily on roof and window pane, but soon
became softer, and mingled with rain as the wind veered more to the east
and south.

"We are in for a heavy thaw," said the elder Davies, "and to-morrow we
shall have good sport. It is hardly worth while to get wet to the skin,
however, for what few birds we shall get to-day."

"Charley," said the younger Davies, "let us go down to the bar and look
up our decoys, for if we have a heavy thaw they may all be washed away
and lost."

Putting on their water-proof coats, boots, and sou'westers, the young
men took their guns and started for the eastern end of the island. The
drifts were very heavy along the fences and under the steep banks which
overhung the eastern and northern shores of the island, and huge
hummocks, white, smooth, and unbroken, showed where the snow had
entombed huge bergs and fantastic pinnacles. Facing the storm with some
difficulty, they got out as far as the ice-boat of La Salle, which they
found completely covered to the depth of two or three feet.

"We should have been smothered if we had taken refuge there last night,"
said Ben, as he proceeded to search for the buried decoys.

"I think not; for men can breathe below a great depth of snow, and I
have heard of sheep being taken alive from a heavy drift after an
entombment of twenty or thirty days."

The decoys were soon gathered, and they proceeded to the farther stand,
where they took the same precaution against the expected flooding of the
floes, piling the decoys into the box until a pyramid of clumsy wooden
birds rose several feet above the level of the ice, which was fast
becoming soft, and covered with dirty pools of snow water and nasty
"sludge."

A FOX HUNT.

"Here is the track of a fox," cried Davies, "and here is where he has
killed a goose this morning;" and La Salle, on hastening to the spot,
foun