A floating meadow

February 25.

A very windy day. A slight snow which fell last night was melted at noon. A strong, gusty wind; the waves on the meadows make a fine show. 

I saw at Hubbard's Bridge that all the ice had been blown up-stream from the meadows, and was collected over the channel against the bridge in large cakes. These were covered and intermingled with a remarkable quantity of the meadow's crust. There was no ice to be seen up-stream and no more down stream.

The meadows have been flooded for a fortnight, and this water has been frozen barely thick enough to bear once only. The old ice on the meadows was covered several feet deep. 

I observed from the bridge, a few rods off northward, what looked like an island directly over the channel. It was the crust of the meadow afloat. I reached it with a little risk and found it to be four rods long by one broad, — the surface of the meadow with cranberry vines , etc., all connected and in their natural position, and no ice visible but around its edges. 

It appeared to be the frozen crust (which was separated from the unfrozen soil as ice is from the water beneath), buoyed up (?), perchance, by the ice around its edges frozen to the stubble. 

Was there any pure ice under it? Had there been any above it? Will frozen meadow float? Had ice which originally supported it from above melted except about the edges? 

When the ice melts or the soil thaws, of course it falls to the bottom, wherever it may be. 

Here is another agent employed in the distribution of plants. 

I have seen where a smooth shore which I frequented for bathing was in one season strewn with these hummocks, bearing the button-bush with them, which have now changed the character of the shore.

There were many rushes and lily-pad stems on the ice. Had the ice formed about them as they grew, broken them off when it floated away, and so they were strewn about on it?

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 25, 1851

... the crust of the meadow afloat, . . .another agent employed in the distribution of plants. See February 27, 1851("Blue-joint was introduced into the first meadow where it did not grow before.");.February 28, 1855 (" This is a powerful agent at work.”); June 22, 1859 ("One who is not almost daily on the river will not perceive the revolution constantly going on.”)

A strong, gusty wind; the waves on the meadows make a fine show. See February 25, 1860 ("It is pleasant to see high dark-blue waves half a mile off running incessantly along the edge of white ice.")

Very windy day; strong, gusty wind. The waves on the meadows make a fine show.

All the ice blown up-stream from the meadows collects against Hubbard's Bridge in large cakes, covered and intermingled with the meadow's crust.

I see from the bridge, a few rods off northward, what looks like an island directly over the channel. I reach it with a little risk.

It is the crust of the meadow afloat, four rods long by one broad, - the surface of the meadow with cranberry vines, etc., all connected and in their natural position, and no ice visible but around its edges.

Here is another agent employed in the distribution of plants.