WILD WOOD WAYS 



legend and all sorts of wonderful things 

 may have happened on its borders. 



W r hatever its work, the ice for this 

 winter has nearly completed it. In early 

 December its crystalline structure was 

 that of ferns, laid flat and interwoven, 

 making it strong and elastic. All sem- 

 blance of these has vanished, and there 

 remains but a loosely adhering structure 

 built like the Giant's Causeway in the 

 north of Ireland of vertical irregular 

 columns jammed together side by side. 

 Moisture is all between these, and if the 

 temperature is below freezing cements 

 them firmly together, and it is safe to 

 walk on the surface. The ice is almost a 

 foot thick still, but let a warm spring sun 

 in on it, and this cement softens, and 

 what seems a firm foundation crumbles 

 and fails beneath your foot. All along 

 the edges to-day the process of disinte- 

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