One year in January, Wesley Curl was going over to Mary's Harbour and was looking for a couple of fellas to go with him. He managed to persuade his brother Grafton to go with him, but he wanted somebody else too. So he asked me to go with him. I was young and had nothing else to do so I said, "Yes boy, I'll go over for a ride."

We got ready and headed out. We went on dog team that day. We used Wesley's dogs. He had seven dogs in all. So the three of us jumped on the cart and took off. The bay was frozen up so we decided to dart on across because it would be faster. We went up behind Frankie's Cove and tried to stay as close to shore as possible.

The bay was covered with glitter ice with not a peck of snow on it. If we had skates we could have skated over to Mary's Harbour that day. The old dogs were barely mucking along and they were slipping and sliding on the ice. We were crossing Lewis' Bay when the dogs saw something up in the woods. It was a fox or something. The old dogs took off with whatever they had across the ice. The dogs were chasing whatever was up in the woods. The dogs were going a good speed across the ice. That was the fastest time they went when they were chasing something. We yelled and swore at the dogs to stop, but those dogs were as stun as me a_ _! They would not stop.

There was a spot in the ice about 15 to 20 feet which had just caught and was not completely froze over. The old dogs were running straight for that spot and we had no idea about the bad ice that was in front of us. The dogs ran right over that spot of ice and never even broke through. The cart had three people on it and it cut right down in the ice. We all ended up in the water. When the cart went down, we all held on to it as tight as we could. There we were in the water clinging unto the cart for our lives. The water was freezing and neither of us knew how to swim. The dogs were on solid ice and we tried to get them to pull the cart up, but the cart was too heavy and the dogs couldn't get any footing. Wesley was up at the head of the cart and only a few feet from solid ice. He managed to pull himself unto the cart and eventually unto the solid ice. Grafton was next. He also managed to pull himself unto the ice. I was still in the water and it was freezing! It was my turn to get on the cart and try to get unto the ice. I had spent the most time in the water and I was beginning to lose feeling in my body. My hands and feet were numb. My clothes were wet and it felt like they weighed a ton. I didn't have much energy but somehow after a while I managed to get on the cart and then unto the ice. Finally, I was safe and sound on solid ice. The three of us were freezing. To add to our troubles it was a very cold day. Our clothes weren't long freezing and were as hard as rocks that we could barely move in them. We managed to haul the cart out of the water. We decided we would continue on to Mary's Harbour because we were closer to Mary's Harbour than Fox harbour.

It seemed like hours before we got to Mary's Harbour. Those stupid dogs were barely getting along now. What a change of speed from when they were chasing that fox. When we got to Mary's Harbour we went over to Noah Rumbolt's house. There we took off all our clothes to let dry and get a good warming. It was some good to get out of those cold, wet clothes. I would say it took me about fifteen minutes to thaw out that day. When we got our clothes dry we decided we would go home before dark set in. We were young and had no sense so we left Mary's Harbour that same day and returned home. This time we took the long way just to he on the safe side.