CASTLE OF ICE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 75, 24 April 1909, Page 3

CASTLE OF ICE.

FAIRY SCENE AT WINTER CARNIVAL. Montreal at the present moment is : like Davos or St. Moritz magnilied a\ hundredfold (writes a correspondent on 20th February). It is a great white, glistening city, with the snow over everything —the miles of Hat roofs, the domes and spires of the churches, the streets and their avenues of trees, the ice-bound St. Lawrence in front, and the mountain that rise- behind and its aptly named .Mount Uoyal. , An ice castle has been built on Fletcher's Field, the people's playground at the foot of the mountain, and a winter carnival is in progrcss.l One hundred and thirty thousand blocks] of ice, cut from the rivers, were used i in the construction of the castle, built I up tier by tier. a.id all fashioned into -l 1 soiid ma?-* by the application of water,! which froze as it struck. 1 It is a structure of three iMvevs, 1 joined by arches and >urrouud<'d bv a 1 wall with a portcullis gain. The highest tower, in the centre. leaching up about ITHft. is the King Edward, and the lwo ! isiuaHer lowers whwh Jlapk it are named tike Queen, Alexandra and Prince of Wales respectively. The castle looks in" the daytime a* though bint of gre.-u; glass, and with the white i;iaiu for' a background is a-beautiful :wiure. Atj night, when arc-lamps are su.-pended in-' side tjic transparent tower-. and n' myriad of light" outside it Is a fairy palace Indeed. | One hundred thousand people gathered the other.night to witness the stornrng 1 of the ice castle by an armv of snow-, rthocrs. who came over 'hi' mountain with torchlights and bombarded the castle with iireworks, while a smaller force defended in the same fashion. It was a great spectacle, the castle spitting flame, the long line? of torchlights waving through tl»> passe* of the mountain, the sky lit with rocket*, and the pie- | turesfjue costumes of the snowshuers I showing up i7i tin* glare. The GovernorGeneral and Lady (Irey were present at the storming, and were much interested.