CHAPTER XXIII.
FISHING UNDER THE ICE.
On awaking next morning, to their great surprise, they saw that the_lake was frozen over_! They had almost anticipated as much, for thenight was one of the coldest they had yet experienced--so cold that oneand all of them had slept but badly. As yet the ice was thin, but somuch the worse. It was thick enough to prevent them from using thecanoe, but too thin to bear their weight, and they now saw that theywere _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 uponthe island until the ice either thawed away or become strong enough tobear them, and then they could cross upon it to the northern shore. Withthis consolation, therefore, they set about making their temporaryquarters upon the island as snug as circumstances would permit. Theirapprehensions, however, began to return again, when several days hadpassed over, and the ice neither grew any thinner nor any thicker, butseemed to remain at a stand-still. In the early part of the morning itwas almost strong enough to bear them; but during the day the sun meltedit, until it was little better than a scum over the surface of thewater.
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 hadbeaten every bush, and found nothing. Once or twice they thought oflaunching their canoe and breaking a way for it through the ice. Butthey knew that this proceeding would be one of much labour as well asdanger. The islet was full ten miles from the shore, and they wouldtherefore have to break the ice for ten miles. Moreover, to stand up ina bark canoe, so as to get at the work, would be a difficult task. Itcould not be accomplished without endangering the equilibrium of thevessel, and indeed without upsetting it altogether. Even to lean forwardin the bow would be a perilous experiment; and under theseconsiderations the idea of breaking a way was abandoned.
But their provisions were at length entirely exhausted, and what was tobe done? The ice was still too weak to carry them. Near the shore itmight have been strong enough, but farther out lay the danger. Therethey knew it was thinner, for it had not frozen over until a laterperiod. It would have been madness to have risked it yet. On the otherhand, they were starving, or likely to starve from hunger, by stayingwhere they were. There was nothing eatable on the island. What was to bedone? In the water were fish--they doubted not that--but how were theyto catch them? They had tried them with hook and line, letting the hookthrough a hole in the ice; but at that late season the fish would nottake a bait, and although they kept several continually set, and"looked" them most regularly and assiduously, not a "tail" was taken.
They were about to adopt the desperate expedient, now more difficultthan ever, of breaking their way through the ice, when, all at once, itoccurred to Norman, that, if they could not coax the fish to take abait, they might succeed better with a net, and capture them againsttheir will. This idea would have been plausible enough, had there been anet; but there was no net on that islet, nor perhaps within an hundredmiles of it. The absence of a net might have been an obstacle to thosewho are ever ready to despair; but such an obstacle never occurred toour courageous boys. They had two _parchment_ skins of the caribou whichthey had lately killed, and out of these Norman proposed to make a net.
He would soon do it, he said, if the others would set to work and cutthe deer-skins into thongs fine enough for the purpose. Two of them,therefore, Basil and Lucien, took out their knives, and went briskly towork; while Francois assisted Norman in twining the thongs, andafterwards held them, while the latter wove and knotted them intomeshes. In a few hours both the skins were cut into fine strips, andworked up; and a net was produced nearly six yards in length by at leasttwo in width. It was rude enough, to be sure, but perhaps it would doits work as well as if it had been twined out of silk. At all events, itwas soon to have a trial--for the moment it was finished the sinkerswere attached to it, and it was carried down to the edge of the water.
The three "Southerners" had never seen a net set under ice--for in theircountry ice is an uncommon thing, and indeed never freezes of sufficientthickness to carry the weight of a man. They were therefore very curiousto know how the thing was to be done. They could not conceive how thenet was to be stretched under the ice, in such a manner as to catch thefish. Norman, however, knew all about it. He had seen the Indians, andhad set many a one himself. It was no new thing for him, and he setabout it at once.
He first crept out upon the ice to the distance of about twenty orthirty yards from the shore. He proceeded cautiously, as the ice creakedunder him. Having arrived at the place where he intended to set the net,he knelt down, and with his knife cut several holes in the ice, at thedistance of about six feet from each other, and all in one line. He hadalready provided himself with a straight sapling of more than six feetin length, to one end of which he had attached a cord. The other end ofthis cord was tied to the net, at one of its corners. He now thrust thesapling through the first hole he had made, and then guided it so as topass directly under the second.
At this hole he took a fresh hold of the stick, and passed it along tothe next, and so on to the last, where he pulled it out again, and ofcourse along with it the string. The net was not drawn into the firsthole, and by means of the cord already received through, was pulled outto its full length. The sinkers, of course, fell down in the water, anddrew it into a vertical position. At both its upper corners the net wasmade fast above the ice, and was now "set." Nothing more could be doneuntil the fish came into it of their own accord, when it could be drawnout upon the ice by means of the cord attached; and, of course, by thesame means could easily be returned to its place, and set again.
All of them now went back to the fire, and with hungry looks sat aroundit, waiting the result. They had made up their minds, should no fish becaught, to get once more into the canoe and attempt breaking their wayto the shore. Summoning all their patience, therefore, they waited fornearly two hours, without examining the net. Then Norman and Basilcrawled back upon the ice, to see what fortune had done for them. Theyapproached the spot, and, with their hearts thumping against their ribs,untied the knot and commenced hauling out.
"It certainly feels heavy," said Basil, as the net was being drawn."Hurrah!" he shouted, "Something kicks, hurrah!" and with the second"hurrah!" a beautiful fish was pulled up through the hole, and landedupon the ice. A loud "hurrah" was uttered in response by Lucien andFrancois--who, fearing the ice might not bear so many, had remained uponthe shore. A yard or two more of the net was cleared, and a second fishstill larger than the former was greeted with a general "hurrah!" Thetwo fish were now taken out--as these were all that had been caught--andthe net was once more carefully set. Basil and Norman came back to theshore--Norman to receive quite a shower of compliments from hiscompanions.
The fish--the largest of which weighed nearly five pounds--proved to betrout; and it was not long before their quality was put to the proof.All declared they had never eaten so fine trout in their lives; but whenthe condition of their appetites is taken into account, we may inferthat there was, perhaps, a little exaggeration in this statement. Ifhunger really makes good sauce, our voyageurs had the best of sauce withtheir fish, as each of them was as hungry as a half-famished wolf.
They felt quite relieved, as far as present appetite went, but they werestill uneasy for the future. Should they not succeed in taking morefish--and it was by no means certain they should succeed--they would beno better off than ever. Their anxiety, however, was soon removed. Theirsecond "haul" proved even more successful than the first--as five fish,weighing together not less than twenty pounds, were pulled up.
This supply would enable them to hold out for a long time, but they hadnot much longer to remain on the islet. Upon that very night there wasone of those severe frosts known only in high latitudes, and the iceupon the lake became nearly a foot in thickness. They had no longer anyfear of its breaking under their weight; and taking their canoe w
ith alltheir "traps," they set out to cross over upon the ice. In a few hoursthey reached the shore of the lake, near the end of the promontory,where they chose a spot, and encamped.