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What happens when the ice beneath your feet carries you away from safety?
In Adrift in the Ice-Fields, Charles Winslow Hall takes you into the cold waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Hunters face drifting ice, harsh weather, and a sea that offers no firm ground. Survival depends on courage, but courage alone is not enough.
Wind and tide shift the floes, and every judgment matters. Hunters must read the weather, judge the strength of the ice, and keep their tools and spirits in order. As moving ice carries people away from safety, warmth, food, shelter, and hope become the things that matter most.
What you’ll discover
- A world of moving ice Enter a gulf where drifting floes grind together and the ground itself refuses to stay still.
- Skill beside courage Discover a survival struggle where practical knowledge matters as much as nerve.
- Hunters against the elements Follow northern hunters whose lives depend on reading weather and judging ice.
- Life stripped to essentials Feel the urgency of warmth, food, shelter, and hope when safety drifts away.
- An old-fashioned adventure Explore Hall's tale of danger at sea, where the natural world tests human judgment.
Who will love it
This is for anyone who loves winter survival tales, hunting and seafaring lore, ghost stories by firelight, and clever inventions made from almost nothing.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A hunting camp carries a warning
- Fear mistakes a lantern for a ghost
- Sharing a prize begins a bond
- Bright days still hold danger
- The hunting ground breaks loose
- Ordinary equipment becomes a means of survival
- New supplies bring fresh risks
- Shared survival crosses old divisions
- Small acts sustain the larger adventure
Who’s who
- La SalleA young lawyer, trader and poet who leads the drifting party with calm skill and keeps his own doubts to himself.
- Regnar OrloffA strong, quiet Labrador pilot who knows ice and seals better than anyone and hides the real purpose of his long search.
- PeterA one-armed Mi'kmaq hunter, honest and proud, who repays kindness with loyalty and makes tools and arrows from scraps.
- George WaringA gentle seventeen-year-old merchant's son, new to the ice, who falls ill and learns to share the work.
- Captain Tom LundA skilled pilot and farmer who hosts the sportsmen and believes in omens, especially the Packet Light.
- Hughie CreamerAn Irish-descended rigger and sailor, brave but afraid of ghosts, who tells yarns that mix truth with invention.
- Ben DaviesA young merchant and keen hunter who shares his boat and trust with Hughie and La Salle.
- KennedyA dry New Brunswick Yankee who quotes the Tribune and Horace Greeley on everything and shoots better than he expects.
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Adrift in the Ice-Fields
by Charles Winslow Hall · 1877
Four hunters on a breaking ice floe build a stove from goose decoys and drift across the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Die, you say, when we have food, shelter, fire, and covering?”
In short
What would you do if the ice under your feet broke loose and carried you out into the open Gulf of St. Lawrence?
Adrift in the Ice-Fields at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 55 min3 h 55 min fast, 5 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 70,500 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1877by Charles Winslow Hall
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Six sportsmen gather at a pilot's farm
The story opens on the island of St. Jean, which ice shuts off from the sea for five months. When the March thaws come, sportsmen prepare for the geese that follow the retreating frost. They pack decoys, white clothing, powder and boats made for the ice.
Six of them lodge with Captain Lund, a pilot who owns most of the farmland on the island of St. Pierre. There is the portly Englishman Henry Risk, his friend Davies, young Ben Davies, and Hughie Creamer, a sailor and teller of tall yarns. Kennedy trusts the New York Tribune on every question. La Salle, the young lawyer who tells the tale, carries a huge gun he calls the Baby.
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Details
- First published
- 1877
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Hall, Charles Winslow. Adrift in the Ice-Fields. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/adrift-in-the-ice-fields.
Hall, C. W. (2026). Adrift in the ice-fields. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/adrift-in-the-ice-fields (Original work published 1877)
Hall, Charles Winslow. Adrift in the Ice-Fields. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/adrift-in-the-ice-fields.
@book{hall2026adrift,
author = {Hall, Charles Winslow},
title = {Adrift in the Ice-Fields},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/adrift-in-the-ice-fields},
note = {First published 1877}
}
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What is Adrift in the Ice-Fields about?
It follows sportsmen hunting geese on the ice off Prince Edward Island, who tell stories by the fire. When the ice breaks, four of them drift for days across the Gulf of St. Lawrence and must build shelter, food and fire from almost nothing.
Who is La Salle in Adrift in the Ice-Fields?
La Salle is the young man who tells the story and leads the drifting party. He is a lawyer, trader and poet who loves hunting, and he uses his practical skill and calm to keep his companions alive.
What is the Packet Light in the book?
It is a ghost light that islanders say glows on the East Bar before storms. It is said to come from a schooner wrecked there thirty years earlier, and Captain Lund believes it is a warning.
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