Rise and fall of the River under the ice.

February 1.

It begins to spit a little snow at noon, just enough to show on the ice, the thickness of a blanket.



FEBRUARY 1, 2015

At 4 P.M., I find that the river rose last evening to within eight and a half inches of the rise of April 23d, 1852, and then began to fall. It has now fallen about four inches. Accordingly, the river falling all day, no water has burst out through the ice next the shore, and it is now one uninterrupted level white blanket of snow quite to the shore on every side.

Apparently the thin recent ice of the night, which connects the main body with the shore, bends and breaks with the rising of the mass, especially in the morning, under the influence of the sun and wind, and the water establishes itself at a new level.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 1, 1855

Apparently the thin recent ice of the night, which connects the main body with the shore, bends and breaks with the rising of the mass . . .See January 1, 1857 ("I observe a shelf of ice . . .adhering to the walls and banks at various heights, the river having fallen nearly two feet since it first froze. . . .")

The river it is now one uninterrupted level white blanket of snow quite to the shore on every side. See February 1, 1856 ("The river has been closed up from end to end, with the exception of one or two insignificant openings on a few days. No bare ice. "); February 7, 1854 ("The river has not been so concealed by snow before. The snow does not merely lie level on it so many inches deep, but great drifts, perchance beginning on the land, stretch quite across it, so that you cannot always tell where it is.")