eager fellows going headlong into the deep snow when they tried to pass those ahead. Any unfair racing, such as tramping on each other's shoes, was not allowed, but in a jostle it must be awfully hard. to avoid it. There wouldn't be much show for a Boston policeman if he had to chase one of these fellows over the snow. But perhaps you don't know what snow-shoes are. Of course one is worn on each foot. They are of Indian origin, made of light ash, bent to an oval, and the ends fastened together by cat-gut. The interior is then crossed with two pieces of flat wood to strengthen the frame, and the whole is woven with cat-gut, like a lawn tennis bat. An opening is left for the motion of the toes in raising the heel in stepping out. The netting sustains the weight of the body, and the shoe sinks only an inch or two, and when one foot is bearing the weight the other is lifted up, and over, and onwards. The shoes are fastened to the moccasoned feet by thongs of deer-skin. The Canadians everywhere in Canada, from Halifax to the Rocky Mountains, use these shoes, and in the cities and towns form clubs. The Montreal Club ("Tuque Bleu ") is half a hundred years old, so you see they've been enjoying themselves here for a long time. Father calls the carnival a "Snow Symposium." I asked Mr. Isles of the Windsor what that meant, and he gave me a city directory to look it up. I don't believe they've got a dictionary in the establishment. Perhaps they expect us to bring our own.

But of all sights under the moon, Bob, you should have seen the grand Snow-shoe and Torchlight procession of all the Snow-shoe clubs, the other evening, when they inaugurated the Ice Palace. Don't you remember how we used to watch for Christmas; when we rose early to see the new white world which had been born in a night? Wasn't it a sort of snow intoxication when we jumped into it, and shovelled it? Well, this seems the way even big men and women, and the horses, too, are affected by the snow. You see gray-headed men in blanket coats, with snowshoes on their feet, jumping fences like deer. Father says he believes the Snow-shoe clubs worship the snow as the Persians did the sun.

A snow-storm set in during the afternoon. They said it was Vennor's contribution to the programme. In the evening everybody came to Dominion. Square, where there was every sort of light but

sunlight. The Palace looked like glass; and I never saw anything so beautiful as when they burned blue, green, crimson and purple fires inside. By and by we heard a great cheer, and the procession of fifteen hundred fellows appeared, in club uniforms, each man carrying a lighted torch in one hand, and discharging Roman candles from the other. The old Montrealers led off, followed by the St. George, Le Canadien, Emerald, Argyle, Prince of Wales Rifles, St. Andrews, Mount Royal, and deputations from the Frontenac Club of Ottawa, and the Levis Club of QueAfter going around and through the Palace, the procession headed for the mountain, went up

INSIDE THE ICE PALACE.

the old snow-shoe track, and returned down the zigzag road. From the city below the sight was picturesque. The long, serpentine trail was seen moving in and out, and twisting like a huge firesnake, while the Roman candles shot their balls of fire into the air, and every now and then you could hear the peculiar "hoo-00-00-00-00" snow-shoe call. It was a grand and wild sight to see them coming back. A snow-storm had set in, and the flickering lights, the costumes, the sturdy, steady tramp of the fellows made one think of a midnight invasion by an army. I wonder if Boston would

turn out like that if we had more of Jack Frost's company. Every night since I've startled in my sleep with imaginary snow-shoe calls, and think I

THE HURDLE RACE.

see hundreds of fellows in white blanket coats, on snow-shoes, singing as they swing along

Tramp! tramp! on snow-shoes tramping,
All the day we marching go,
Till at night by fires encamping

We find couches mid the snow!

They all stopped at the Montreal Amateur Ath

letic Association Gymnasium, and hundreds went in, and a good many of us strangers, too. Just think, they've got a Lacrosse Club, a Snow-shoe

Club, Bicycle Club, Chess Club, a Library, Reading Room, Billiards, Bowling Alley, Shooting Gallery and this Gymnasium in one association. I never saw such people. The Gymnasium has a piano, and a stage - they've got a dramatic club in it, too -and volunteer songs were sung, and speeches made, and some visitors from "the States" were "bounced " by these fellows in white blankets. When they want to show you how glad they are to see you, they catch hold of you and pitch you up into the air, and catch you in their arms as you come down. They did it to a gentleman I know, and he said he'd like it every day. He thought it was good for his liver, and that is what's the matter with him. They never bounce ladies.

I'm sure the Canadians must have a fellow-feeling for the Laplanders, who held that Paradise is in the centre of the snows of Sweden. Father was telling me that his sleeplessness has gone since he left his business behind him; and he says that there's many a man in Boston who cries with the French barber, "Alas! why is there no sleep to be sold!" who could get it to perfection, for nothing, in Canada, in winter. Old men have told us that the most delicious hours of their lives were when they were members of the old Montreal Snow-shoe Club.

There were three days of trotting races on the river, and lots of fun. Some good horses were brought here from "the States." I don't know anything about horses, but I should think they en

joyed being horses that day. The skating races and games on the river took my fancy. First came a snow-shoe race of two hundred yards, followed by a skating race of a mile; then a quartermile barrel race; a backward

quarter-mile

race; another of two miles; a hurdle race of one hundred and fifty yards; a quarter mile obstacle race; and another one of two miles, all on skates. You see it was a jolly programme. You can hardly imagine the dash and excitement of the hurdle race. I never supposed they could jump the hurdles with skates on, but they went over them like deer, and you'd have laughed

a pain into your side,

and then clearing the hurdles, and coming down safe and square to recover your balance and shoot off again. One fellow with a handkerchief around his head seemed as if he had wings.

One

had you seen the odd positions some of the skaters took when going over. Fancy flying at full speed on the glare ice, and jumping at the right instant,

in jumping looked like

some of your specimens of bats, or butterflies, as he sprawled his legs. Another looked like a jumping-jack with

the string pulled full length.

The barrel

race kept everybody looking on,

as well as the skaters, in roars of

laughter. I would have given anything to go in for it myself. Several common barrels, with their ends out, were placed at some distances

apart to the extent of quarter of a mile, and a lot of boys entered for the competition. At signal to start, off they dashed, and at the first barrel, two boys struggled to get in first, as the barrel would only hold one at a time and everybody had to go

FANCY DRESS CARNIVAL AT THE VICTORIA RINK.

through every barrel. The first boy who got in could hardly get through, as the barrel wriggled round on the ice, and when he came out he found his head facing where his heels had been, and he began to run back where he came from until he turned around and saw the other barrels, and then he bolted back again. The way those barrels turned around when the boys were in them was very funny. They seemed to turn the boys' heads too, as they had to look around where they were when they got out.

You and I know what lots of fun there is in

hockey on skates, but the Canadians go in for it systematically, and have clubs in the different cities. The contests between the cities drew thousands to the river, but the matches were finished in the skating-rinks, though they were narrow for an all round game like hockey. The club from Quebec, and the McGill College Club of Montreal, were evenly matched. Some of the fellows got great cracks. They say that the great Canadian game of Lacrosse resembles hockey, and is even more fascinating.. The players collided and tumbled over each other on account of the narrowness of the rink, and I guess some of them had pretty sore shins, for I saw a good many of them limping. But the limping ones were laughing the most.

On Thursday evening we all went to the Fancy Dress Carnival at the Victoria Skating Rink. The city has any number of enclosed skatingrinks, but the Victoria is the best, and has a very large membership. We went early, and the circle of seats was filled with spectators. The ice was like a huge piece of plate glass. In the middle a small edition of the Ice Palace was built, lit by electricity and colored lights, while a fountain of water played inside. Some one on top of it kept changing the colors, giving the ice and the water a beautiful appearance. I quite forgot that there was to be a masquerade of skaters, until the band struck up, and suddenly hundreds of fancy-dressed ladies and gentlemen on skates came from the two dressing rooms and glided into procession. In a few minutes the whole rink was a curious, pretty, changing circle of all sorts of dresses and colors. The characters of all our school histories seemed to be animated and put on skates, and among them glided fairies and harlequins. It was very funny to see the curious acquaintances, the different characters picked up as they went around. There were a lot of fellows dressed like fiends, with horns on their heads, and after they kept together in each other's bad company for a time, one went off arm in arm with "Queen Elizabeth," and another with "Brother Jonathan."

The animals were very clever. Two bears skated with a pretty girl. It was a sort of Beauty and the Beast, only Beauty couldn't make up her mind which to choose. One of the Bears fell down, and Beauty left them both and went off with the Gorilla.