ICE FORMATIONS IN MARSHES 105 



and spent in playing Eskimo is refreshing to 

 soul and body alike and helps to keep them to- 

 gether I 



The ice floor of the creeks and estuaries is 

 pushed up by the mighty hydraulic power of the 

 tides for eight or nine feet twice in twenty-four 

 hours, and twice it sinks back again. Long cracks 

 parallel with the banks, through which at times 

 the green sea water escapes, only to be frozen in 

 solid lakelets, permits this up and down motion. 

 In very cold weather, the solid ice rises and falls 

 with surprisingly little disturbance. In places, 

 pressure ridges form and the ice is sometimes 

 forced up from all sides into hummocks. In 

 the times of the full moon when there is an un- 

 usually high course of tides, especially if the tide 

 is urged farther landward by an easterly gale, 

 the water breaks loose over the marshes and great 

 cakes of ice are strewn about in wild confusion. 

 Woe to the summer constructions of boat-land- 

 ings and houses ! Everything must give way be- 

 fore the mighty hydraulic pressure. The water 

 freezing between the cakes later cements the 

 whole into one solid mass. 



