chap, xii THE IVORY GATE 175 



nately I had with me neither aneroid nor camera. Inland 

 the storm was raging, and the dark clouds gathered and 

 hurried along over or upon the hills. To the south were 

 peaks more or less known to me. Some we saw from Fox 

 Peak, others from Sticky Keep. They rise in a region of 

 glacier. A rainbow was standing on the glacier foot, whose 

 wide extension I could now well discern, with the serac crest 

 that seemed to overhang the face toward Agardh Bay. All 

 the region east of the watershed was much snowier than 

 west. The land and low valleys about Agardh Bay were 

 as snowy as Advent Vale a month before. One could not 

 stay long at work in such a gale. It blew all warmth and 

 feeling from the hands. On these occasions only habit 

 enables a man to face working at all ; mere will would 

 not suffice. Each line drawn upon the map is won at a 

 measurable cost of pain. When I could stand no more, I 

 hurried under the cliff's shelter, and rubbed life back into 

 fingers and arms. Then the view sank into the mind, never 

 to be forgotten — one of the greatest and most memorable 

 prospects I have ever beheld — oh ! the glorious world, where 

 man has no place and there is no sign of his handiwork, 

 where Nature completes her own intentions unhindered and 

 unhelped by him. Such pure snows no Alpine height 

 presents, nor such pale-blue skies, nor that marvellous, 

 remote, opalescent sea with its white flocks and its yet 

 more distant shore. No Alpine outlook penetrates through 

 such atmosphere, so mellow, so rich. The Arctic glory is 

 a thing apart, wilder, rarer, and no less superb than the 

 glory of any other region of this beautiful world. 



Returning to camp was a fierce struggle, for now the 

 gale was in my teeth ; but the slope was with me, and I 

 grew warm again in the contest. By the fluttering tents 

 food was in an advanced stage of preparation. The herald 

 of glad tidings is always well received. After some hours' 



