It is still winter in northern Newfoundland in April, though the days
are growing long and at midday the sun, climbing high now in the
heavens, sends forth a genial warmth that softens the snow. At this
season winds spring up suddenly and unexpectedly, and blow with
tremendous velocity. Sometimes the winds are accompanied by squalls of
rain or snow, with a sudden fall in temperature, and an off-shore wind
is quite certain to break up the ice that has covered the bays all
winter, and to send it abroad in pans upon the wide Atlantic, to melt
presently and disappear.
This breaking up of the ice sometimes comes so suddenly that traveling
with dogs upon the frozen bays at this season is a hazardous
undertaking. Scarcely a year passes that some one is not lost.
Sometimes men are carried far to sea on ice pans and are never heard
from again.
A man must know the trails to travel with dogs along this rough coast.
Much better progress is made traveling upon sea ice than on land
trails, for the latter are usually up and down over rocky hills and
through entangling brush and forest, while the former is a smooth
straight-away course.
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