chap, xiv ICE FJORD 



199 



and force it to adopt varying points of view. Now it seemed 

 good to behold the flocks of eiders swimming on the waters, 

 and the petrels flying swiftly just above the surface. The 

 guillemots were like old friends found again, and we even 

 forgave a glaucous gull, feeding close inshore amongst a 

 long line of kittiwakes, for the inland misdeeds of his fellows. 



Sassen Bay, beheld from this point, is not only worth 

 seeing, but worth coming so far to see. Here the Temple 

 and its companions are at their grandest, with the blue 

 fjord or the white glaciers at their base. Hence, too, one 

 beholds all the wonder of Post Glacier, with its splendid 

 shining width, its incredible levelness, its noble backward 

 sweep, and its finely-curving tributaries, smooth and wide 

 like itself. It ends in the bay in a wall of ice, a wall white 

 and blue, splintering into a broken edge. " Oh to be on 

 it ! " was an immediate impulse, as usual needing the cor- 

 rection, which I suppose life is not long enough to make 

 habitual, " Dort wo Du nicht bist dort ist das Gliick." West- 

 ward was the long reach of Ice Fjord, closed by the pointed 

 and contrasting row of peaks bounding the great glaciers of 

 Cape Boheman, behind which stood up a tall and remoter 

 pyramidal white mountain, a little Weisshorn, which was 

 playing the pretty game of being in shadow when its neigh- 

 bours were bright, and then shining forth brilliantly when a 

 cloud came between them and the sun. 



Altogether, Starvation Bluff seemed a charming spot for 

 a camp, but a plum-pudding determined us to go on to 

 Windy Point, a few miles farther along the coast in the 

 direction of Advent Bay. When Gregory came back after 

 his long walk round to our base, he was obliged by the 

 gale to land at Windy Point, and there accordingly he left 

 the stores intended for use on our return. Thus we had 

 this day to pick up Battye's cache near Delta River, the tents 

 and things left by him at Starvation Point, and finally, 



