Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-02-09
>Msrrllan
Montreal i'm Winter.
THE GREAT CARNIvAL-THE ICE LION
TOBAGGANNING.

| A newspaper correspondent who has
been at Montreal this week writes as fol-
| lows
The carnival has created this year lit
tie less excitement than it did when it was
novelty, but this festival is better both
in details and in general organization
than the early attempts were. The ice
palace is finer. new features have been
added to the programme, and the know
ing ones who have come and are now ar
irving in great numbers find themselves
we'll paid for sustaining their interest af-
ter the first flush of novelty has been worn
off. The weather is ghtful-clear,
cold and still. and although the snow is
not as deep as it usually is at this season,
there is enough of it for all practical pur-
poses.
Montreal has very different aspect in
winter from that which the tourist knows
by his summer visits. In stroll along
the wharves this morning [ missed the
oceans steamers, the quaint ''pinplats'
and other inland craft. and the groups of
travellers hurrying to the Quebec boats.
The river is now a waste OF arctic snow
and rough ice, and the breeze sweeping
over it at temperature Of IA degrees be-
low zero gave me but little inclination to
loiter on the way. The plain of ice was
covered in two places by white mists ris-
ing in many fantastic forms where the
rapids still refuse to be bound in letters
of ice; roads leading across the plain
were marked by rows of bushes lines of
farmers sleds loaded with hay, straw and
grain wound along this bleak route, and
cabin here and there offered refresh
ments in the midst of the desert, or shell
tered men fishing through the ice. Men
and horses worked at the ice harvest
along the wharves, and over the plain,
the forest-covered island of St. Helen,
the opposite shore and the far off noun
tains there fell bountiful flood of clear,
pale, sparkling winter sunshine.
The street along the river, with its flags,
roofs, spires. and smoking chimneys.
was lively front or shore of civilization
facing this arctic wilderness. In the Bon
secours market place, the quaint, patri-
archal inhabitants, bartering with the citi-
zens. were done up in all manner Of
homespun caps, coats, cloaks, and leg
gings, and their sleds were filled with all
manner of wares-turkeys, socks, butter,
frozen pigs, homespun linen-and ANXIOUS
housewives moved homeward with laden
baskets, to satisfy the keen appetites
found in this northern air.
The streets were alive with varied
throngs; visitors from more southern re-
gons. easily recognized by their high
hats and earmuffs, and inadequate cloth
ing; the comfortable Canadians, so we'll
encased in furs as to look like walking
bears the scuffling hackmen, in long buff
falo coats and sashes about the waists !;
ladies glancing shyly out of an ambush of
otter and seal and beaver wraps; the
snowshoers, in their bright flannel suits
a tuque and tassel. short coat with capu-
chin hood, sash, long hose and moccasins !;
the cosey earioles, the larger sleghs, the
four hands, all filled with furs and rud-
dy-faced visitors watching the sights of
the streets as they skim along. the horses
all silvered over with fine frostwork, and
the men, often on run, throwing saluta-
tons upon the cold air. The city seems
full of gaiety. bright eyes and ruddy
cheeks.
The evening scenes were more rare and
poetic than the views by glittering sun
shine. The electric light, with its pure,
cold white rays, seems to be the fitting
spirit for palaces and statuary of ice.
One of the novelties of this carnival
is the mammoth lion of ice. The
tropic emblem of the British empire
seems to be out of place in an arctic temp
ature, and made of this transient material
The entire monument with its pedes-
tai of ice may be thirty feet high. 1t was
hastily modelled by French Canadian
sculptor and the difficulty of working out
of doors at such season and with such a
material may well excuse some crudeness
in the execution. In the sunshine, the
lights shining through the angles and thin
ner portions. and the variation of clearness
in the ice, give it false effects. But it
has certain grim and phantom-lke senti-
ment wher seen at night.
The opening of the Montreal toboggan
hill was a much more brilliant scene. On
the side of the mountain was river of
torchlights, bon-fres. red lights, Chinese
lanterns, and green lights, beginning far
up the heights and flowing down and
across the meadows. The toboggans ran
down the river of lights in narrow lev
bitches. separated from one another bv a
ridge of snow. Rockets and candles added
to the brilliant and striking scene The
sliders, in pretty flannel costumes. walked
up the hill beside the tracks and the rows
of lights.
They gathered in a crowd at the top of
the slide and awaited impatiently their
turns then they at last embarked on their
light toboggans, moved off, and soon flew
down the deep descent with a speed that
is said to be equal to mile per minute.
The effect on the novice is wonderful; he
feels as if he were falling through space,
among the stars. Those looking on see a
compact row of flannel coats. tuques and
hoods come down with a scraping sound,
and flash past them. while little cloud of
dry snow whirls up behind them. The
shouts. the occasional red lights, the won
derfu speed, the shadows of night and the
ruddy lights, and the arctic, death.like
snow and cold, all full of bounding glee,
make it scene of unique and fairy-like
sentiment.