“At last we have got here, having arrived in Hamilton at 1a.m. on Saturday. We were two weeks coming from Liverpool. After I had written my last letter we had some unwelcome experiences. We were in the ice for four days. We came to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and found there 50 to 60 miles of solid ice; as we had to go all the way back to go to Halifax, the winter port. Then we got a rescue call from a French trawler which was stuck right in the ice, so we had to go to them. We were crashing through the ice from 2p.m. to 9p.m. to get to them. They had no coal, and their propeller was gone. We got to within 150 yards of them, then some of their passengers had to walk across the ice to get on our boat. The whole of the French crew refused to leave their boat, even after our captain had risked our lives to get there; so we went on with the four passengers who had joined us, and left the others. I believe it was something that has hardly ever happened before—so much ice, and the river not being opened up before May 1st. Two or three boats had to turn and go back to Halifax or St. John’s. We were all very disappointed at not going up the river. We got to Halifax on Wednesday morning, and were soon on a train, had “sleepers” and food till we got to Montreal on Friday morning. Then we got a train there at 12.30, and landed in Hamilton and went to an hotel for the night. Now we are staying with some friends while we see about a house. It was all snow and ice from Halifax to Montreal. The shipping company paid all expenses from Halifax because they could not get us to Montreal.”

The letter bears the impression of the White Star Dominion Line and is dated May 9th. The news in the above letter may probably have some bearing on the unexpected and unwelcome long spell of cold weather experienced in England.