Stirred with a stick, it shows a mass of crystals.

February 28.

A pleasant morning. What is the cause of that half ice, half water, along the edge of the river now, of the consistency of molasses or soft solder ? I can think of no peculiarity in its formation unless that this water, the river rising, has flowed out over the ice in the night faster than it froze. Stirred with a stick, it shows a mass of crystals.

This is now another rise of the river. I see that the ice in hollows in the fields breaks up (partially) in the same manner with that on the river, viz. around the shore it is covered with water and rests on the bottom, while the middle is raised with the water, and hence a ridge is heaved up where the two ices meet.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 28, 1854

Around the shore ice is covered with water and rests on the bottom, while the middle is raised with the water, and hence a ridge is heaved up where the two ices meet. Compare February 28, 1855 ("Many great cakes have lodged on a ridge of the meadow west of the river here, and suggest how such a ridge may be growing from year to year."); January 10, 1859 ("The middle of the river where narrow . . .is lifted up into a ridge considerably higher than on the sides and cracked broadly.")