436 GLACIER STREAM. 



had no difficulty in wading across above the 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 JEneas 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- 



