P aching of the Ice. 117 



surface of the stream being covered with it ; and the quantity is 

 so great, that to account for the supply, many, unsatisfied with 

 the supposition of a marginal origin, have recourse to the hypo- 

 thesis that a very large portion is formed on and derived from the 

 "bottom of the river, where rapid currents exist. But whatever its 

 origin, it now moves in solid and extensive fields, and wherever it 

 meets with an obstacle in its course, the momentum of the mass 

 breaks up the striking part into huge fragments that pile over 

 one another ; or if the obstacle be stationary ice, the fragments 

 are driven under it and there closely packed. Beneath the con- 

 stantly widening ice-barrier mentioned, an enormous quantity is 

 thus driven, particularly when the barrier gains any position 

 "where the current is stronger than usual. The augmented force 

 with which the masses there move, pushes and packs so much 

 below, that the space left for the river to flow in is greatly dimin- 

 ished, and the consequence is a perceptible rise of the waters 

 above, which indeed from the very first taking of the bridge 

 gradually and slowly increase for a considerable way up. . 



There is no place on the St. Lawrence where all the phenomena 

 of the taking, packing and shoving of the ice are so grandly dis- 

 played as in the neighbourhood of Montreal. The violence of 

 the currents is here so great, and the river in some places expands 

 to such a width, that whether we consider the prodigious extent 

 of the masses moved or the force with which they are propelled, 

 nothing can afford a more majestic spectacle, or impress the mind 

 more thoroughly with a sense of irresistible power. Standing for 

 hours together upon the bank overlooking St. Mary's Current, I 

 have seen league after league of ice crushed and broken against 

 the barrier lower down, and there submerged arid crammed 

 beneath ; and when we reflect that an operation similar to this 

 occurs in several parts from Lake St. Peter upwards, it will not 

 surprise us that the river should gradually swell. By the time 

 the ice has become stationary at the foot of St. Mary's Current, 

 the waters of the St Lawrence have usually risen several feet in 

 the harbour of Montreal, and as the space through which this 

 current flows affords a deep and narrow passage for nearly the 

 whole body of the river, it may well be imagined that when the 

 packing here begins the inundation rapidly increases. The con- 

 fined nature of this part of the channel affords a more ready 

 resistance to the progress of the ice, while the violence of the 

 current brings such an abundant supply, and packs it with so 



