chap, xii THE IVORY GATE 177 



proper hollow and emerges upon the open meeting-place 

 of valleys, it spreads abroad in all directions into a huge low 

 dome, on an oval plan, about three miles in diameter, and 

 some four hundred feet higher in the middle than around 

 the edge. The whole of this domed extension of the 

 Ivory Glacier has come down since 1870, for in that year 

 Heuglin records that the Fulmar Valley stretched back, green 

 and flat, from the head of Agardh Bay. Over this dome 

 lay our route — a novel kind of pass. We afterwards named 

 it the Ivory Gate, partly from a lovely section of veined 

 ice that gave us pleasure and partly from some ivory gulls 

 that frequented our camp. It was not a pass in the usual 

 sense. The actual col is buried somewhere under the ice, 

 and is probably about 400 feet above sea-level. 



The surface of the glacier, as one made its acquaintance 

 more minutely, was not like the surface of a glacier in the 

 Alps. Winter snow, falling upon it, fills its hollows, and 

 water percolates the mass, which ultimately freezes, pro- 

 ducing areas of ice of a loose and crystalline character, 

 ready to break up when trodden on into nut-sized granules 

 or prisms. Beds of snow, sodden with water, covered 

 large areas, and awaited the first frost to turn into ice. 

 Crevassed patches were dry enough, but where there were 

 no crevasses water lay about in a most uncomfortable 

 fashion, and freezing slush had often to be waded through. 

 But Garwood, our elected guide, led skilfully and reduced 

 all such annoyances to a minimum. 



We bore away to our right so as to mount to the top 

 (646 feet) of the great terminal dome of the glacier, which 

 an hour and a half of smart walking sufficed to reach ; delay 

 being caused, as the desired point was neared, by a multitude 

 of crevasses, roofed with unstable archings of winter snow, 

 which had to be carefully tested before they could be used 

 for bridges. Our rope was of the frailest, odds and ends of 



M 



