436 GLACIER STREAM. 



had no difficulty in wading across above tlie junction 

 of the two arms. Following thence up the eastward 

 branch as it dashed wildly down in a succession of 

 cataracts, cutting squarely across the laminae or strata 

 (which lay at an angle of about 35°), I came at length 

 to a place where the ice was much disturbed, and rose 

 by broken steps from the plain on which I stood to 

 the height of about one hundred and fifty feet, and 

 right out from this wall came the rushing torrent, 

 hissing and foaming from a monstrous tunnel, to 

 which the Croton Aqueduct would be a pigmy. It 

 was a strange sight. The ice was perfectly pure and 

 transparent ; and yet, out of its very heart, was pour- 

 ing the muddy stream of which I have made mention, 

 and which, although the comparison is rather remote, 

 reminded me of the image which Virgil draws of the 

 Tiber, when ^neas first beheld its turbid waters, 

 pouring out from beneath the bright and lovely fo- 

 liage which overspread it. 



The tunnel out of which the waters poured was 

 about ten yards wide and as many high, the support- 

 ing roof being composed of every form of Gothic 

 arch, fretted and fluted in the most marvelous man- 

 ner, and pure as the most stainless alabaster ; yet the 

 distant effect within the tunnel was quite different, 

 — the dark stream beneath being reflected above ; 

 and truly, if I might be allowed to paraphrase a line 

 of Dryden, — 



" The muddy bottom o'er the arch was thrown.** 



I clambered within this tunnel as far as I could, along 

 a slippery shelf above the tumbling waters, until the 

 light was almost shut out behind me, but far enough 

 to perceive that, on my right hand, other tunnels dis- 



