94 PAST AND PRESENT OF considerable consultation among the cap¬ tains of the boats as to the advisability of attempting to cross, three boats set out from the Island side. The crews consisted of fif¬ teen men together with seven passengers. During the forenoon a storm began which by noon had increased with the wind to a blinding drift. As evening approached they were met by a great deal of lolly and noth¬ ing remained but to stay on the ice all night. Two of the boats were turned up gunwale to gunwale at the top, so as to form a kind of house, and from the third boat they tore the tin with which each was covered, so as to make a sort of pan in which they could kindle a fire. First the newspapers were taken from the mail bags and set on fire and, later on, the third boat was broken up and all the extra oars so that some little warmth could be had; but this was a labor¬ ious undertaking, for there was no axe or other tool by which the breaking could be done. But while some warmth was obtained the smoke in their eyes added to their mis¬ eries, more perhaps than the fire lessened them. To make them still more wretched the fire was sufficient to melt the snow near and their clothes thus became soaked with water. Owing to the hardships he endured, one of the crew became delirious. As morn¬ ing dragged slowly along there was no improvement in the weather and their fuel was nearly all burned. But about three o'clock in the afternoon, the storm mod¬ erated somewhat and the Island shores could be faintly made out some distance to the north. After great exertion the board ice, that is, the smooth flat ice from the shore, in distinction from the hillocky ice floating up and down the straits, was reached. But still their troubles were not over. They were met on the land by great drifts of snow almost impossible to wade through, espe¬ cially as their clothes were now frozen stiff upon their limbs. By making shouts and screams they were at last heard, and a search party, after great exertion and con¬ siderable hunting, succeeded in getting the whole twenty-two into comfortable quar¬ ters. One man, a Mr. Fraser , lost almost all his fingers and toes, so badly were his limbs frozen. The boatman who had become delirious did not long survive the fearful privations they all endured. This party was thirty-six hours in the straits. Since then the Federal Government has managed the ice-boat service. But the crossings by this means are only undertaken now when the ice at the eastern end of the Island is-too thick and too much packed by the easterly winds of March to enable the winter steamers to reach Pictou . CHARLOTTETOWN. By Mrs. George Stanley . Charlottetown , the capital city of , is situated on the western extremity of the north bank of the Hills¬ borough river. It was named after Queen Charlotte, wife of George III , of England . In the year 1768 the population was about fifty persons and has been steadily but slowly increasing ever since till at present it may be estimated at over twelve thousand. In 1786 the town was laid out into five hundred building lots one hundred and sixty by eighty-four feet each fronting the Hill- borough river the eighty-four foot way. The streets were laid out at right angles,