184 GREENLAND. 



vast island undulated, caverned, and massive, or some 

 immense but mastless Great Eastern, glistening in the 

 sun, reflecting hues oi' the emerald, beryl, and turquoise; 

 here you may see one towering heavenward 



" As a stately Attic temple 

 Bears its white shafts on high ; ** 



then another without a single elevation, presenting to 

 the eye nothing but an irrogular crevassed surface. 



The spired bergs are not more beautiful than danger- 

 ous ; the ice navigator knows that they may turn over at 

 ny moment; the water in which they float gradually 

 melting that portion which is submerged, the centre of 

 gravity slowly moves up toward the water-line, and the 

 slightest shock is sufficient to upset the whole mass. 



The solid, squarish bergs are those used by the ship- 

 masters as temporary moorings. Drawing perhaps some 

 800 to 1,000 feet they ground and act as anchors to the 

 Bliips. On these bergs are usually found small lakes of 

 fresh water, the ice being of land origin. The constant 

 action of the powerful Arctic sun thawing the surface, the 

 water either collects in pools or miniature lakes, OP 

 trickles down the side. 



It is almost impossible for those who have not seen 

 them to imagine the sublimity and grandeur of a belt of 

 these ice-islands. Their fantastic shapes traced out in 

 pure glistening white against a pale blue sky, floating in 

 water of a still deeper hue, form a picture which but few 

 artist* could paint. They strew the Arctic seas in 



