i 3 o SPITSBERGEN chap, ix 



Selecting the best place to be found, we plunged through 

 and scrambled out on to the overhanging ice-bank beyond, 

 wet to the belts. 



The ice-foot of the Grit Ridge Glacier reached to the 

 junction of the two torrents, so that the second torrent, 

 which was in fact the glacier stream, need not have been 

 crossed at all. Its left bank, however, offered a more com- 

 fortable route, so we jumped across at a point where the 

 overhanging ice-banks reached out towards one another. 

 The torrent, with its floor and walls of purest ice and its 

 dark waters, was a beautiful thing. Garwood lingered behind 

 to investigate the structure of the ice, where, at one point, its 

 rod-like crystalline structure was displayed. He almost lost 

 his life in consequence. The corniced bank gave way be- 

 neath his feet as he approached the edge to take a photo- 

 graph. By a fortunate chance he did not fall into the race 

 of waters, whence he could not possibly have emerged alive, 

 for the floor was ice, the torrent was in flood, and the walls 

 overhung like a tunnel. He was facing the stream, and he 

 went straight down, but his elbows behind his back caught 

 on the newly-broken edge, and there he hung suspended, 

 unable to get any purchase with his feet, for they went right 

 back against the slippery and still overhanging wall. He 

 believes he remained in this dreadful position for ten minutes, 

 before, by some twisting arrangement, he balanced himself 

 on one hand, and reached his geological hammer with the 

 other. He ultimately dug this in, and made of it a prop 

 by which he withdrew himself from a very nasty situation. 

 Then he took the photograph, and thereupon continued 

 his way. 



Meanwhile I was wandering calmly over the lower slopes 

 of Mount Marmier, seeking a good plane-table station, and 

 ignorant of the adventure in progress below. Rounding a 

 corner, the Grit Ridge Glacier came in sight, and beyond it 



