chap, xi FULMAR VALLEY 159 



Then there was a sound in the air close above my head as of 

 the rushing by of some great creature, some " ghost from an 

 enchanter fleeing." A petrel had flashed past. All was still 

 that the eye beheld. Hour followed after hour, and the view 

 was ever the same. Across the valley the same long, low 

 line of bare flat-topped hill ; on this side always the staged 

 fronts of the Trident, flat-bedded, each bluff repeating the 

 forms of the bluff before, and striped with regular lines of 

 exactly similar snow-couloirs — Peak Milne-Edwards in front 

 coming so slowly nearer. At last, at midnight, the corner of 

 the Turnback Valley was reached, and a gloomy prospect 

 opened over a short wide inlet into the hills, with a broad 

 flooded river flowing down the midst in many channels, and 

 in places almost covering the half-mile of stony flat that 

 intervenes between the gentle bog-slopes of either bank. 

 Many small snowy side valleys were revealed, one of which 

 w r e believed led to our pass. We afterwards discovered that 

 it was not the one we had noticed from the Trident ; but for 

 the present we were deceived. The nearer we came to it 

 the less we liked its appearance. Formerly it contained a 

 glacier, which deposited a quantity of moraine all about its 

 wide snout ; this rough accumulation blocked the lowest half- 

 mile of the hollow. Behind came the shrunken tongue of 

 ice leading up to the great sheet. It was a miserable outlook. 

 There appeared to be bogs to cross, the wide river to wade, 

 a long stone-fan to ascend, and then the moraines to scramble 

 over — a combination of all the nastiest things that can be 

 put in the way of sledges. 



Into the water we plunged. It was too swift and deep 

 where I tried it, and carried me off my legs. A better place 

 was found, and over w r e went from one shallow 7 to another 

 with broad deep channels between. In the deepest of 

 these both sledges went gaily floating down stream, rolling 

 over and over ; whilst in the rapidest place, where the icy 



