40THIC GLACIER. 435 



usual to the glacier's face. It was worn and wasted 

 away until it seemed like the front of some vast in- 

 congruous temple, — here a groined roof of some 

 huge cathedral, and there a pointed window or a Nor- 

 man doorway deeply molded ; while on all sides 

 were pillars round and fluted, and pendants dripping 

 crystal drops of the purest water, and all bathed in a 

 soft, blue atmosphere. Above these wondrous arch- 

 ways and galleries there was still preserved the same 

 Gothic character, — tall spires and pinnacles rose 

 along the entire front and multiplied behind them, 

 and new forms met the eye continually. The play of 

 light and the magical softness of the color of the sea 

 and ice was perfectly charming, as the scene I have 

 heretofore described among the icebergs. Strange, 

 there was nothing cold or forbidding anywhere. The 

 ice seemed to take the warmth which suffused the air, 

 and I longed to pull my boat far within the openings, 

 and paddle beneath the Gothic archways. The dan- 

 gers from falling ice alone prevented me from enter- 

 ing one of the largest of them. 



Pulling around to the west side of the glacier, I 

 clambered up a steep acclivity over a pile of mud and 

 rock, which the expanding and moving ice had pushed 

 out from its bed. Once at the top of this yielding 

 slope, the eye was met by a perfect forest of spires ; 

 but it was not easy to get on the glacier itself Along 

 its margin, half in mud and rock and half in ice, a 

 torrent of dirty water came tearing along at a furious 

 pace, disclosing the laminated structure of the ice in 

 a very beautiful manner ; and this was not easily 

 crossed. At length, however, I came to a spot where 

 the chief feeder of this rushing stream branched off 

 at right angles, coming from the glacier itself, and I 



