DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 503 



mer de glace, an ice-ocean, to the eye of boundless 

 dimensions. 



" It was in full sight the mighty crystal bridge which 

 connects the two continents of America and Greenland. 

 I say continents, for Greenland, however insulated it 

 may ultimately prove to be, is in mass strictly conti- 

 nental. Its least possible axis, measured from Cape 

 Farewell to the line of this glacier, in the neighborhood 

 of the eightieth parallel, gives a length of more than 

 twelve hundred miles, not materially less than that of 

 Australia from its northern to its southern cape. 



" Imagine now the centre of such a continent, oc- 

 cupied through nearly its whole extent by a deep un- 

 broken sea of ice, that gathers perennial increase from 

 the water-shed of vast snow-covered mountains, and all 

 the precipitations of the atmosphere upon its own sur- 

 face. Imagine this moving onward like a great glacial 

 river, seeking outlets at every fiord and valley, rolling 

 icy cataracts into the Atlantic and Greenland seas ; and, 

 having at last reached the northern limit of the land that 

 has borne it up, pouring out a mighty frozen torrent 

 into unknown Arctic space. 



" It is thus, and only thus, that we must form a just 

 conception of a phenomenon like this Great Glacier. I 

 had looked in my own mind for such an appearance, 

 should I ever be fortunate enough to reach the northern 

 coast of Greenland. But, now that it was before me, I 

 could hardly realize it. I had recognized, in my quiet 

 library at home, the beautiful analogies which Forbes 

 and Studer have developed between the glacier and the 

 river. But I could not comprehend at first this com- 

 plete substitution of ice for water. 



" It was slowly that the conviction dawned on me 

 that I was looking upon the counterpart of the great 

 river system of Arctic Asia and America. Yet hero 



