9;60 Mr Bohr's Account of a Visit to the Glaciers of' 



a mountain-down lying on its south side, covered with trees and 

 plants. Summer and winter lie here smiling by one another's 

 side. While one foot stands on the ice, the other rests on flowers 

 and grass. Almost all the snow was thawed on the surface of 

 the Glacier of Lodal, so that every cleft in the ice was distinctly 

 to be seen. Towards the front of the glacier, these clefts were 

 smaller, most of them not more than a foot across, and running 

 parallel to the sides of the adjoining mountain. Higher up, the 

 huge dead mass of ice shews that it has undergone strong inter- 

 nal commotions and violent throes, and here gravitation has per- 

 formed fearful pranks. The surface of the ice was uneven, and 

 of less uniforai cohesion. The clefts run cross to one another, 

 and were often from ten to twenty feet broad, or more. Their 

 depth must be considerable, perhaps down to the ground, over 

 which the ice lies, but it would not be an easy matter to measure 

 them. In the large ones you could mark distinctly the layers 

 by which the ice had been annually increased. We could of- 

 ten count twenty of these, separated from one another by a dark 

 coloured stripe. But it is not without terror you pass over or 

 look down into these fearful abysses, however beautiful their 

 azure-coloured walls are. In their cold bottoms the lonely tra- 

 veller has sometimes found his grave. A few years ago, a pea- 

 sant crossing over from Justedal to Nordfiord, fell into one of 

 these large clefts, which was concealed by the snow. His only 

 companion, a faithful dog, ran down to Justedal, barking and 

 howling, as a signal for help. Nobody, liowever, comprehend- 

 ed his meaning, till the person who had fallen down was at last 

 missed. Several persons then followed the dog up to the gla- 

 cier, who stopped at the cleft, and gave such signs as put it be- 

 yond all doubt that his master had sunk into it. They threw 

 down a rope, and made loud cries, but in vain, the peasant had 

 met his death in the immeasurable gulf It was only by com- 

 pulsion the dog would leave the cleft. 



At three o'clock in the morning, Reaumur's thermometer 

 was T above the freezing ix)int. Only small streams of water 

 run on the surface of the glacier. Tliis was not slippery, but 

 rough, large- grained, porous, easily crushed, and full of many 

 small holes and cells, of the size of a nut, and, in short, was 

 just like ice composed of snow, soaked with water. As the day 



