130 I'HK ICK AOK IN CANADA. 



" Tlie appearance of an esluaiy in the bay of Fiuuly at 

 any time in mid-winter, ])re-<ents some sinjfular and 

 strikin^Lf phenomena, which may contribute to our know- 

 ledjfe of the manner in which (UfCerent agents have 

 assisted in excavatinf? this extrain-dinary l)ay, and are 

 now engaged in extending its domain in some directions 

 and reducing it in others. 



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

 to l)e full of masses of floating ice, nuul-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 varial)le (hiration. J)uring this l)rief period all is 

 repose and (piiet, but uS soon as the ebb begins, the 

 innumerable 1 docks of ice commence to move, and in half 

 an hour they are as swiftly gliding noiselessly towards 

 the sea, as an hour l)efore they t-wiftly and noiselessly 

 glided from it. It ])roduces 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 dinnnishcd if he should return to the same point of 

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

 as im])etuously 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 

 fiats are covered with ice-blocks innumeral)le. If the 

 period between the ebb iind the return of the flood is 

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

 or mud-tiats and are covered l)y the returning tide, hut 

 only until the warm tidal water succeeds in thawing the 

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



