66 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. Ill 



part of the harbour, but was in a rapidly decaying 

 state ; and on revisiting their anchorage here in the 

 beginning of August, it had entirely disappeared. 

 Magdalena Bay is rendered conspicuous by four 

 glaciers, the smallest two hundred feet above the 

 sea, on the slope of a mountain. It is called the 

 Hanging Iceberg, and seems, so Beechey says, as 

 if a very slight matter would detach it from the 

 mountain and precipitate it into the sea. The 

 largest of the four extends two to three miles in- 

 land : owing to the great rents in the surface, it has 

 been named the Waggon-way, from the resem- 

 blance of the fissures to ruts made by wheels. 

 Several glaciers similar to those were observed near 

 Dane's Gut, the largest about ten thousand feet in 

 length, by two or three hundred feet in perpendi- 

 cular height. In the vicinity of these icebergs a 

 strict observance of silence is necessary ; the explo- 

 sion of a gun scarcely ever fails to bring down one 

 of these masses. Mr. Beechey says that on two 

 occasions they witnessed avalanches on the most 

 magnificent scale. 



" The first was occasioned by the discharge of a musket 

 at about half a mile distance from the glacier. Imme- 

 diately after the report of the gun, a noise resembling 

 thunder was heard in the direction of the iceberg (glacier), 

 and in a few seconds more an immense piece broke away, 

 and fell headlong into the sea. The crew of the launch, 

 supposing themselves beyond the reach of its influence, 

 quietly looked upon the scene, when presently a sea arose 



