EFFECT OF ICE ON SHORES 143 



and perhaps equalh' important, work in conveying the detritus 

 from the shallow waters next the shore out to sea and along 

 the coast-lines in considc.-rable though less extended journeys. 

 In the winter season, when the floe-ice forms or thickens in 

 the shore-packs which beset the lands in high latitudes, the 

 stones and other movable detritus of the coast-line become 

 frozen into the sheets, and when they float off in the spring 

 season are rafted for some distance, and finally, but more 

 speedily than in the case of the materials conveyed by bergs, 

 are dropped upon the bottom. The carriage is for a less dis- 

 tance, because the floe-ice, being thin, survives for a less time 

 in the sea-water. The immediate effect of this action is to rob 

 the shore-line of the debris which the waves have plucked from 

 the cliffs, and thus to hasten the wasting of the shores ; it also 

 contributes a large amount of detritus to the ocean depths. 

 Although this action is of miost importance within the Arctic 

 Circle, its effects are felt all along the shores where ice forms 

 to the thickness of a foot or more, and after severe frosts 

 floats away seaward. Its influence has long been remarked in 

 the waters of the Baltic Sea. One of the English men-of-war 

 which was sunk during the attack on the Danish fleet in 1807, 

 was visited by divers seven years after that battle ; its deck 

 was found covered with blocks of stone which had drifted there 

 in ice-floes. It is said that all sunken ships in that part of 

 the sea quickly become overladen by a thick coating of rock 

 debris. 



In the occasional severe winters which occur along the New 

 England coast as far south as Rhode Island, this floe-ice makes 

 to a thickness of three feet. Under the influence of the strong 

 tides and winds these ice-fields are often urged against the 

 shore, upon which they break into fragments, which are 



