GOTHIC 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 



