/ 
ICE-CHANGES. 
159 
sixty-four days ago, when our twilight was as it now 
is, a partially snow-patched plain, chequered Avith 
ridges of sharp hummocks, or a series of long icy 
levels, over Avhich I coursed with my Newfoundlanders. 
All this has gone. A lead-colored expanse stretches 
its ‘ rounding gray’ in every direction, and the old 
angular hummocks are so softened doAvn as to blend 
in rolling dunes Avith the distant obscurity. The snow 
upon the levels sIioavs the same remarkable evapora¬ 
tion. It is uoav in crisp layers, hardly six inches 
thick, quite undisturbed by drift. I could hardly 
recognise any of the old localities. 
“We can trace the outline of the shore again, and 
even some of the long horizontal bands of its stratifica¬ 
tion. The cliffs of Sylvia Mountain, Avhich open to¬ 
ward the east, are, if any thing, more covered Avith 
snoAv than the ridges fronting Avest across the bay. 
“But the feature Avhich had changed most Avas the 
ice-belt. When I suav it last, it Avas an investing zone 
of ice, coping the margin of the floe. The constant 
accumulation by overfloAV of tides and freezing has 
turned this into a bristling Avail, tAventy feet high, 
(20 ft. 8 in.) No language can depict the chaos at 
its base. It has been rising and falling throughout 
the long Avinter, Avith a tidal Avave of thirteen perpen¬ 
dicular feet. The fragments have been tossed into 
every possible confusion, rearing up in fantastic equi¬ 
librium, surging in long inclined planes, dipping into 
dark valleys, and piling in contorted hills, often high 
above the ice-foot. 
