down-coming boat _Ontario_, and hear her report on the state of the
ice-fields. She had been six days icebound at Duluth and the answer to
our captain's inquiry was--

"Forty miles of ice; only one passage. If you hit that, all right; if
not, you won't get through."

And wishing us luck and good night, with three hearty cheers from either
deck, we parted. Naturally anxious as we were for a speedy journey, the
possibility of failure in hitting the one open passage lent the
additional charm of uncertainty to our voyage; not charming, however, to
the poor emigrants whose stock of provisions was too scanty to admit of a
long stay on board, while the commissariat of the steamer was not
prepared to supply them. Knowing this, the captain--a pleasant, handsome
man--quoting the saying that "Fortune favours the brave," put on steam.

By eight o'clock on Sunday morning we had met great blocks of ice, and
grown accustomed to hearing them bump against the side of the boat; and
before noon we were well into the icefields, with loose blocks of ice on
every side, and a rough surface of piled-up masses as far as the eye
could see. Up a narrow strip of blue water we steamed, the passage
closing in our wake. Then the way became blocked ahead, while the vessel
heeled to one side with a lurch, as a great block went under her keel.
The captain held on steadily but slowly, stopping the machinery until a
large berg was passed, and taking advantage of an opening created by the
waves as they bore the floes upon their crests. As the ice-blocks closed
in behind us the certainty of being unable to return, and the difficulty
of going ahead, gave increased excitement to our adventure.

One of its strangest features was the heat. Though clothed in the