Vol. 52.] 



OF ARCTIC EUROPE AND ITS ISLANDS. 



72o 



the making of a terrace lately on the island of Kolguev, not on a 

 great scale, but still sufficiently important to be a guide. The 

 broken ice-pack was pressed on to the western shore of Kolguev by 

 a strong gale for three days. The width of this pack as I saw it 

 was from h to | mile ; it was a chaos of ice-material, blocks and 

 fragments pressed together by the force of the gale which was 

 raging outside, and huge waves dashing over the windward side 

 of the pack. Standing on the beach, the crushing and grinding of 

 the ice-blocks, with their dismal groaning, was audible above the 

 noise of the wind. An ' angry ' pack under such circumstances 

 is a very awe-inspiring force of nature. As the ice pressed on the 

 shore, it drove before it banks of mud and gravel ; these were pushed 

 up in ridges several feet high, and the tops of these banks were 

 rough and irregular. The gale died away, and the ice, which had 



Fig. 2. — Terraces across the mouth of the Gosina River. Kolyuev Island. 



[From a photograph by H. J. Pearson, L895.] 



acted as a breakwater, disappeared. Then came the influence of 

 the sea. Xo longer kept back from exerting its power 011 the 

 shore-line by the protective ice-barrier, the waves at the height of 

 the tide pushed their crests over the heaped- up ridges of mud and 

 gravel, and as they surged along levelled them as tlat as a billiard- 

 table. As successive tides came in, not so high or strong as those 

 immediately following the gale, the raised surface was cul parallel 

 to the shore-line as straight and perpendicular as if done by a spade 



