LAKE MICHIGAN. 187 



in vain. The sun darting liis full rays upon the scene and the whole shore is 

 illuminated with dazzling brightness. Every stone, the sand, and even the 

 usually dull and uninteresting drift-wood reflects with brilliancy the clear, 

 bright rays. The cold continues; the waves dash with monotonous music on 

 the shore, and the ice thickens on the beach. Drift-logs from being thinly 

 coated with ice gradually assume new forms. Icicles form rapidly ; 



" The pendant icicle ; the frost-work fair, 

 Where transient hues and fancied figures rise ;" 



every particle of drift-wood becomes an object of interest and of beauty ; the 

 ice combines, perhaps, with snow, and form objects of beauty in form, 

 exceeding in grace and exquisite delicacy the finest creations of the sculptor's 

 art. Forms arise as different from the original log or stone as can well be 

 imagined, all dressed in the purest robes of white and crystal. No matter how 

 common the shape or how worthless and unsightly the drift, it is now reformed 

 and renewed into an object of surpassing and astonishing interest. The forms 

 are so varied that every step is accompanied by a new surprise. The scene 

 becomes bewildering, and the idea becomes irresistible that the simplest oper- 

 ations of nature can suddenly transform the most commonplace objects into 

 subjects for wonder, admiration and enchantment. 



A NATURAL BREAKWATER. 



All these Avorks of sculpture are produced when the lake is in its ordinary 

 mood without extra commotion. As winter advances the ice thickens, and 

 snow perhaps mingles with the spray still more abundantly ; every day a new 

 aspect is presented by this new-formed shore. Beginning with these simple 

 and afterwards wonderful formations, if the cold continue, the bulk of ice and 

 snow increases in thickness until it assumes the form of an immense but some- 

 what irregular wall, skirting the lake at the point where the force of the waves . 

 is usually expended. This wall forms a natural breakwater, against which the 

 waves dash with a violence increased by the stubbornness of the resistance it 

 presents to the course of the waves up the beach. The greater the resistance, 

 the more abundant the spray, and, with the temperature of the air perhaps 

 near to zero, every assault made by the waves increases the height and thick- 

 ness of the barrier. So far from breaking down the wall, their action adds to 

 its strength, until it becomes an imposing barrier. 



WINTER STORMS. 



But all this comparatively quiet work is only preparatory to the coming 

 conflict. The lake, as the cold continues or increases, becomes partially covered 

 with ice, which is broken up into pieces by every windstorm. This broken ice 

 is dashed up with great violence against the ice-formed barrier on the beach, 

 and in violent storms thrown completely over the ice wall, is piled up upon 

 it and greatly augments its breadth and height. Storm after storm succeeds, 

 until what was once simply beautiful in its form and sunlit glittering, be- 

 comes now grand and majestic. Ice is piled on ice, and the whole dashed 

 with water and frozen until a solid mass is formed firm as a rock, rivalling the 

 lake-bluffs and hills in their height and dimensions, and far exceeding them in 

 brilliancy whenever favored with a brief interval of sunshine. 



