102 OUR ISLAND STORY winter of the year 1828, and in subsequent winters, a courier named Campbell, with a crew of men drawn from the vicinity, crossed at the with greater dispatch and regularity than had been attained on the Eastern route. The late Mr. Justice Peters , one of the passengers who ac¬ companied the first couriers over the , suggested the construction of an improved "ice boat"—one with two keels, each shod with iron, so that when out of the water, it could be drawn as a sled. This suggestion was adopted. To the sides of the improved iceboat ropes and straps were attached and these were passed over the shoulders of those who propelled it, so avoiding the danger of drowning or other accident. When water or lolly intervened, all the men jumped into the boat, and it was propelled, by means of oars until another raft of running ice was struck; and so on, until the "board ice" was reached. This was the kind of boat, and this the method of crossing during several months of each winter until the Car Ferry was provided. At first there were crossings by the but otice in each week. Then, in the year 1861, semi-weekly crossings were authorized and undertaken. Afterwards the mails were dispatched from Charlottetown three times in each week and carried across the Strait in three boats. In more recent years, the Government of Canada supplied steamers, built and equipped to cope with ice conditions, to maintain the postal and passenger service between Charlottetown , Georgetown and , as long as possible,resort being taken to the only in the midst of each winter. Then there were crossings with the mails on every day that the weather permitted; and at last as many as twelve ice boats were sometimes employed in the carriage of mails and passengers. In the course of the century and a half during which there was winter communication across the strait there were several notable disasters. Of those which occurred between the Wood Islands and , no record is available; but of those on the Capes Routes there are two. On Saturday the 10th of March 1855, at 8 o'clock in the morn¬ ing, a winter boat crew, consisting of Samuel McRae , (Master) William McRae , Benjamin Robinson and Duncan Cameron , with I