130 THE ICE AGE IN CANADA. 



" The appearance of an estuary in the bay of Fundy at 

 any time in mid-winter, presents some singular and 

 striking phenomena, which may contribute to our know- 

 ledge of the manner in which different agents have 

 assisted in excavating this extraordinary bay, and are 

 now engaged in extending its domain in some directions 

 and reducing it in others. 



" Within an hour or so of flood tide, the estuary is seen 

 to be full of masses of floating ice, mud-stained, and, 

 sometimes, but not often, loaded with earth, stones, or 

 pieces of marsh. The tide, flowing at a rate of four or 

 five miles an hour, rushes past with its broad, ice-laden 

 current until the flood. A rest, or ' stand,' then occurs, 

 of variable duration. During this brief period all is 

 repose and quiet, but as soon as the ebb begins, the 

 innumerable blocks of ice commence to move, and in half 

 an hour they are as swiftly gliding noiselessly towards 

 the sea, as an hour before they swiftly and noiselessly 

 glided from it. It produces in the mind of one who sees 

 these ice-streams for the first time, moving up the wide 

 river faster than he can conveniently walk, a feeling of 

 astonishment, akin to awe, which is heightened rather 

 than diminished if he should return to the same point of 

 view half an hour later, and find the ice-stream rushing 

 as impetuously as before in exactly the opposite direction. 



" During the ebb tide many of the larger blocks ground 

 on the sand-bars, so that when the tide is out the extensive 

 flats are covered with ice-blocks innumerable. If the 

 period between the ebb and the return of the flood is 

 very cold, the stranded ice-blocks freeze to the sand-bars 

 or mud-flats and are covered by the returning tide, but 

 only until the warm tidal water succeeds in thawing the 

 frozen sand or mud around the base of the ice-block, and 



