The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-31
CANADIAN NOTES.
The Great Carnival Of Winter Sports-The
Ice Palace--Sn0w Lion.

nival at Montreal next week is now the theme of
many tongues, and the objective point towards
which the thoughts of thousands are tending
This will be the third in the series of winter car
nivals, and gives promise of being more attract
i've and interesting than either of the two former
The Ice Palace on Dominion square, fronting
the Windsor Hotel, is more slightly and of better
proportions than either of its predecessors. In
addition to this Ice Palace huge dome of ice
called the "Condora' has been constructed In
the center of the "Champs de Mars This
Condora has FIVE galleries running round the
outside of the cone, one above another, upon
which uniformed members of the snow-shoe
clubs are to be stationed and armed with Roman
candles and other works, to resist the attack
to be made from below with the same material
on Wednesday evening, Jan %. This Condora
is constructed of $4,000 blocks of ice. 1t is
built in seven tiers, each tier reaching from the
ground upward, and eight feet less in circum
ference than the preceding one. The apex is
twenty-four feet high, and surmounted by a
statue in ice of gigantic snow-shoer. Another
novelty is the Snow Lion, in the Place de Armes,
in front of the great church of Notre Dame.
This Snow Lion rests upon a base OF ice eighteen
feet broad, and rises to a height of
twenty feet 1t was wrought Of damp, compact
ted snow and hence the artists have been en-
nabled to make it much more perfect than il
could have been cut from ice The pedestal is
hollow, and at night will be illuminated
with various colored lights, as the Condora will
be also, giving rare beauty and strange rich
ness of color to the scene. The Snow Lion is
h,x;i
square, so that the water falling over portions of
the base and freezing gives wonderfully pretty
effect of icicles.
The Ice Palace will be lighted by number of
electric candles and many colored lights
will also be used. On the evening of
the third day of the carnival will come the
attack of the snow-shoe clubs in
which thousands of uniformed snow-shoers
will take part. It will be simply grand dis
play of fireworks directed against the Ice Palace
from without and issuing from it from within.
The palace built of huge squares of clear st.
Lawrence ice, will glow like great temple of
fire and seem to be melting away in the heat.
Ii the evening is favorable, this will be, as here
tofore, the most magnificent display of Canadas
great winter festival Following this will occur
the tramp OF the snowshoe clubs through the
streets and up Mount Royal, when :
There will be visions of fire in the night
Winding up through the streets and the woods,
And breaking like waves on the height
Of Mount Royal, in wandering floods
And Grant scintillas of fame,
Passing in and out under the trees,
lnconstant as phantoms of fame,
Or lights on the populous seas"
In brief, this tramp of the snow-shoe clubs
among the dark evergreens Of the Mount ROYAL
woods, when viewed from any point in the city,
is one of the most fascinating and beautiful
scenes that one can we'll imagine. 1t is wholly
different in character from that vision of beauty,
wrought from his memories, of light upon the
waters, by Tenn Moore, in "Lalla Rookh,"
and yet, it recalls the picture of
those floating, interohanging, appearing and
disappearing lights. multiplied by the clear waters
beneath them, as few other scenes will recall
it. A new feature in tobogganing has been added,
in the shape of the Russian toboggan slides,
which consists oftwo slides upon opposite hills, so
arranged that the momentum gained in going
down one slide carries you to the foot Of the
other, and you have only to walk up the
incline to be ready for another downward rush.
Some place in New England they have built
slide $50 the papers sayl AND rugged up machine
by small steam engine to lift the to-
bogganists and their toboggans to tho top
of the slide again. If they only
had such an arrangement at each of
the inclines of this Russian toboegan
ground, the thing would be about as complete as
could be. The WEAKNESS of tobogeaning comes
from climbing the steep incline which makes
the game seem like that Of the child that walks
a mile to get to ride half the distance. A writer
in the Journal. recently. characterized toboggan-
ing as being Canadian for coasting." But
coasting is done with small Sled and is quite
as much INDUCED in here as tobogganing If,
however, one should try to 60 down a toboggan
that tobogganing is quite different thing from
coasting, and would be lucky, indeed, if his
worst loss were broken limb or two
My first experience of the downward plunge
IT,
one of the best tobogganists in Canada.
He seated me near the front end
of the vehicle with my feet shielded by the up
turned edge of the thin boards. He showed the
toboggan over the edge Of the decivity, throwing
himself upon it from behind, as it went over
which he directed our course. The first sensa-
ton Of the tyrO is that Of having been shot from
a cannon then he feels that he is falling from the
clouds. His hair would stand on end if it had
time He imagnes that all is over with him,
and his heart sinks down, down, down. but lust
as he expects to strike and be crushed the tobog-
gan reaches the level field and glides merrily
away In most exhilarating and enjoyable race
over the smooth, white bosom of the plain
Formerly, coasting down the mountain side
was quite popular with the more reckless and
daring of the young Canucks But the attempt,
whenever made down the steep mountain roads,
was full of peril to life and limb. An old Mont
reaer, who was lone Of the boys" in his day
relates that late one winters night himself and
some boon companions found themselves at the
summit mile and half from the city on the
old Cote des Neiges" road with strong coast
ing sled They talked the matter over and con-
Guided that at that late hour no one would
be upon the old highway that led down
to the city. The roadway was smooth, the de-
scent very rapid and so the temptation was too
great for those dare devils to resist They must,
would and did coast down the mountain When
about halfway down, and going with the speed
of limited express train, what was their sur
prise to see an old haitian slowly climbing the
hill in pung sleigh drawn by a white horse
That was what they saw the first moment; the
next the air about them seemed to be full of
white horses, pung sleighs. robes and quilts,
while choking shower of horse hairs fell about
them Another moment. and, as they still sped
downward. they cast backward and upward
chances to see an old haitian standing
alone, upon the bleak mountain road dazed and
COMPOUNDED. and doubtless believing that he had
encountered the evil one in his fight and had
certainly come out the worse for the meeting