THE BEACH IN WINTER 89 



At the foot of the gravelly cliffs of Castle 

 Hill, where it has been cut away by the sea, the 

 beach is strewn with boulders. On these, in 

 severe weather, ice caps build up still higher until 

 the waves can reach no farther. The waves are 

 arrested at their highest point and turned into 

 pinnacles of ice. 



The sea itself is wonderfully changed under 

 the influence of the intense cold. Long after 

 the small fresh water ponds are fast bound up 

 with ice, the sea keeps open. The restless waves 

 prevent freezing and the larger body of sea water 

 takes a long period of frost to cool it down to the 

 freezing point, which is 28° Fahrenheit, not 

 32° as is the case with fresh water. In- 

 stead of forming a thin skim of ice as in quiet 

 regions, the surface of the sea, churned by the 

 ceaseless throb of the waves, becomes milky and 

 suggests sago gruel. The surface ripples vanish, 

 as if quieted by oil, and the waves throb and 

 break with a muffled and sullen roar on the icy 

 beach. Their force is spent under the thick 

 covering of snowy ice. If one scoops up a hand- 

 ful of this he discovers that it is not formed of 



