The Bread Frozen.--Skating.--Fish Frozen in Ice.--
Birds Frozen to the Ice.--Ice-Ships.
It was dark when they sailed up the dyke leading to the broad, and the
wind had fallen, so that their progress was slow. As they moved out of
the dyke, where there was a gentle current, into the open broad, there
was a sound of crashing and splintering at their bows, and the way of
the yacht was stopped. Jimmy and Dick rushed out of the cabin, where
they had been preparing supper, and said to Frank, who was at the
helm,--
"What is the matter?"
"Why the broad is frozen over, and we can't get any further."
"Can't we break a passage through?" said Dick.
"We might, but it would be a pity to spoil so much ice for skating. Let
us stay here until the morning, and then we can walk across for our
skates. The yacht will be as safe here as by the boat-house."
They were already sufficiently wedged in by the ice to be able to
dispense with the lowering of their anchor, and after supper--(which by
the way consisted of, first broiled bacon, next tinned salmon, then some
gooseberry-jam, followed by cheese, and finally a tin of American
preserved strawberries, which they had bought at Yarmouth, the whole
washed down by coffee and beer)--they turned in for a snooze. The
silence of the night was broken by continual sharp, tinkling noises. It
was some little time before they discovered that these arose from the
ice crystals as they formed along the surface of the water, shooting out
in long needles and crossing each other, until every inch of the water
was covered.
In the morning the ice was strong enough to bear their weight, although
it bent in long waves beneath them as they hurried over it.
The frost continued. The ice was smooth, and black, and hard, and
perfectly free from snow. Early and late, the boys sped lightly over it
on their skates, enjoying to the full this most invigorating and healthy
exercise.
Frank and Jimmy practised threes and eights and the spread-eagle, and
the other now old-fashioned figures, with great assiduity; and Dick,
having soon mastered the inside edge, tumbled about most indefatigably
in his efforts to master the outside edge.
The frost continued with unabated severity, and soon the ice was two
feet thick, and the shallower portions of the broad were frozen to the
bottom. One day Dick was skating at a good pace before the wind, when
something beneath his feet in the transparent ice attracted his
attention, and in his haste to stop he came down very heavily. He
shouted to Frank and Jimmy to come up, and when they did so, he pointed
to the ice at his feet. Midway in the water, where it was about two feet
deep, was a shoal of a dozen perch, most of them good sized ones, frozen
into the ice in various attitudes, betokening their last struggle to
escape. The reason of their being so caught was explained by the fact
that they were in a slight depression surrounded by shallower and weedy
water, which had frozen so as to shut them in, and give them no means of
escape before the water in which they swam became solid.
"That fellow is fully two pounds weight. I wonder if they are dead,"
said Frank.
"Of course they must be," answered Jimmy; "they cannot be frozen stiff
like that and live."
"I am not so sure about that," observed Dick; "caterpillars have been
known to be frozen quite stiff, and to all appearance lifeless, yet they
revive when they are warmed."
"Well," said Frank, "I tell you what we will do. We will dig them out,
and put them into water in the house, and give them a chance."
They did so, and five of the perch, including the biggest and the
smallest, came to life, and were subsequently restored to the broad.
One day a rapid thaw set in, and the ice was covered with a thin layer
of water. During the night, however, the wind suddenly changed, and this
layer of water froze so quickly, that it held fast by the feet many
water-fowl which had been resting on the ice.
When the boys went down to the ice in the morning, they saw here and
there a dead or dying water-hen or coot thus made captive, and
surrounded by a group of the hooded crows, those grey-backed crows which
in the winter-time are so common in Norfolk, and the rapacious birds
were attacking and eating the poor held-fast water-fowl.
The crowning achievement of the winter was this: They broke the _Swan_
free, and got her on to the ice; then they supported her on some
runners, like large skate irons, made by the village blacksmith, and put
on ordinary skates on each rudder to get steerage power, and so
constructed with great ease an ice-ship after the fashion of those used
in some parts of Canada. With this they sped over the ice at a far
quicker rate than they had ever sailed upon the water, and they could
steer her tolerably close to the wind. This amusement superseded the
skating until the ice melted away, and the _Swan_ once more floated on
the water and sailed in her legitimate manner.