Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 225 



The ice phenomena of the lake, including the formation, thaw- 

 ing, expansion and contraction, forming of ice-beaches and so on, 

 present more or less variety from year to year. In the two years 

 the phenomena were studied there was a wide difference in them, 

 so that different details confidently looked for from previous ex- 

 perience were surprisingly discounted. 



Every year, the small body, Lost Lake, freezes over much sooner 

 than the larger lake, and usually freezes over as a smooth sheet of 

 ice, in a single night. 



During the winter of 1900-1901, cold weather came on rather 

 suddenly and the weather was rough and windy, so that, though 

 the surface water became quite cold, the wind kept it from freez- 

 ing except in the form of ice-needles which drifted up at first on 

 the shore in high, conical snow-white masses, which at a distance 

 looked like frozen foam, but which revealed on closer examination 

 an entirely different structure from foam. The surface of the 

 water near shore on the windward side of the lake, was covered 

 with slush ice, composed of long needle-shaped crystals, which, as 

 they were jostled together by the choppy waves, made a cheerful 

 musical sound, like the rustling of dried hay. At other times during 

 momentary bits of calm, or in protected bays, a thin sheet of clear 

 solid ice would be put out from shore, soon to be broken into bits 

 by the wind. These, constantly moved among each other by the 

 waves, produced a musical continuous clinking, like glasses struck 

 together, or at other times larger masses in more violent motion 

 produced a far-heard rumbling like a heavy farm wagon rattling 

 along a road. The bits of ice blown up against the shore gouged 

 the shore considerably and shoved considerable sand before them 

 in places, although finally the result of such gouging was neither 

 conspicuous nor permanent. 



As to the final freezing over of the lake, in 1900-1901, the first 

 stage from shore was formed by the needle-shaped crystals already 

 mentioned, these forming concretions around centers, making cir- 

 cular patches from about the size of a dinner plate to several feet 

 across, and these finally drifted together and the becalmed water 

 of the interstices froze, thus cementing the whole together into a 

 solid mass. 



From this time on, during moments of comparative calm, 

 stretches of rather smooth clear ice would form out toward the 

 center of the lake, the inner margin of which would soon be more 

 or less chopped up and broken by waves during more windy pe- 

 riods, and then would occur another advantage of calm and cold, 

 another concentric ring of ice would be formed, another attack of 



