‘Pancake’ Ice in the Pennines

Abstract

ON February 2 during a severe frost a visit was made to High Force in Upper Teesdale. The Force was a spectacular and beautiful sight, with a considerable cascade of water descending between great curtains of ice, and heavy icicles draping all the surrounding cliffs formed by the Whin Sill. But it was the pool below the fall itself that invited special attention and comment. Here on the agitated surface were floating rounded pieces of ice, formed apparently at the height of the frost on the pool-surface, which later became disintegrated. Some fragments, however, may have been derived from the surrounding walls, or have descended by the cascade from the upper reaches of the river. Mr. Bentley Beetham, of Barnard Castle, who accompanied me and who has before seen the Force under frozen conditions, favours the first-mentioned alternative for the origin of the ice-glaçons.