262 Mr Bohr's Accmmt of a Visit to ilie Glaciers of 



snow. My active guide was as little acquainted with the road 

 to the top of it as I was. Our ascent from the glacier began at 

 the foot of the mountain on the north-east, at the height of 4500 

 feet above the sea. About 750 feet higher up, all water had 

 disappeared, and the depth of the snow increased, although the 

 heat in the sun was 29J° R. The lowest point, therefore, above 

 which snow never melts here, may be considered as about 5250 

 feet over the level of the sea. The steepness of the mountain 

 made the ascent now pretty difficult : the rents in the ice, too, 

 were deeper and broader than down on the glacier, and they 

 were sometimes covered by snow. It became, therefore, dange- 

 rous to pass over them. You have often but a slippery foot- 

 step between ycm and death, and your first false step is your 

 last in the world. From caution against such danger, we walked 

 with a rope about our waist, and, trusting to this, we courage- 

 ously crossed on a bridge of snow ten feet over. The difficulty 

 of climbing was increased, by the inconceivable, and almost in- 

 tolerable, heat of the sun, which, added to the thinness of the 

 air, produced an uncommon weakness, and a pulse nearly doub- 

 led. We recovered our strength, however, in as short a time as 

 we lost it, and it was not long before the naked summit was 

 reached. 



With some degree of alarm we climbed up its 150 feet high 

 loose black head, that seemed to move under us : the top of this 

 we reached at half past eleven a. m., on the 13th July. From 

 a mean of six observations, which corresponded with those of 

 Engineer Major Wetlessen, in Bergen, Dean Hertzbergen, in 

 Hardanger, and Professor Esmark, in Christiania, and from 

 calculations made according to the formula of La Place, the 

 southern top of LodaPs Mantle is 6113 feet above the level of 

 the sea. It divides itself into three elevations, the summits of 

 which and the steepest side are naked. The rest of the moun- 

 tain to the bottom is covered with an everlasting and unbroken 

 mantle of ice and snow. By other observations, we found, that 

 the eastern and highest top was 6408 feet above the sea. Seve- 

 ral circum-meridian observations of the sun gave the latitude 

 61° 57', though, from an accidental injury which happened to 

 the sextant, this determination is less to be depended on. 



The surface of a small stone we found on the top of the moun- 



