LOGAN ON THE PACKING OF ICE IN THE ST. LAWRENCE. 4-25 



banks, where it sometimes accumulates to the height of forty or 

 fifty feet. In front of the town of Montreal there has lately been 

 built a magnificent revetement wall of cut limestone to the height 

 of twenty-three feet above the summer level of the river. This wall 

 is now a great protection against the effects of the ice. Broken by 

 it, the ice piles on the street or terrace surmounting it, and there 

 stops; but before the wall was built, the sloping bank guided the 

 moving mass up to those of gardens and houses in a very dangerous 

 manner, and many accidents used to occur. It has been known to 

 pile up against the side of a house more than 200 feet from the 

 margin of the river, and there break in at the windows of the second 

 floor. I have seen it mount a terrace garden twenty feet above the 

 bank, and crossing the garden enter one of the principal streets of 

 the town. A few years before the erection of the revetement wall, 

 a friend of mine, tempted by the commercial advantages of the po- 

 sition, ventured to build a large cut-stone warehouse 180 feet long 

 and four or five stories high, closer than usual upon the margin of 

 the harbour. The ground-floor was not more than eight feet above 

 the summer level of the river. At the taking of the ice, the usual 

 rise of the water of course inundated the lower story, and the whole 

 building becoming surrounded by a frozen sheet, a general expecta- 

 tion was entertained that it would be prostrated by the first move- 

 ment. But the proprietor had taken a very simple and effectual 

 precaution to prevent this. Just before the rise of the waters lie 

 securely laid against three sides of the building, at an angle of less 

 than 45°, a number of stout oak logs a few feet asunder. When 

 the movement came the sheet of ice was broken and pushed up the 

 wooden inclined plane thus formed, at the top of which meeting the 

 wall of the building, it was reflected into a vertical position, and 

 falling back, in this manner such an enormous rampart of ice was 

 in a few minutes placed in front of the warehouse as completely 

 shielded it from all possible danger. In some years the ice has piled 

 up nearly as high as the roof of this building. Another gentleman, 

 encouraged by the security which this warehouse apparently enjoyed, 

 erected one of great strength and equal magnitude on the next 

 water lot, but he omitted to protect it in the same way. The result 

 might have been anticipated. A movement of the ice occurring, 

 the great sheet struck the walls at right angles, and pushed over the 

 building as if it had been a house of cards. Both positions are now 

 secured by the revetement wall. 



Several movements of the grand order just mentioned occur be- 

 fore the final setting of the ice, and each is immediately preceded 

 by a sudden rise of the river. Sometimes several days and occa- 

 sionally but a few hours will intervene between them ; and it is for- 

 tunate that there is a criterion by which the inhabitants are made 

 aware when the ice may be considered at rest for the season, and 

 when it has therefore become safe for them to cut their winter roads 

 across its rough and pinnacled surface. This is never the case until 

 a longitudinal opening of considerable extent appears in some part 

 of St. Mary's Current. It has embarrassed many to give a satisfac- 



