chap, xv MOUNT LUSITANIA 209 



spired as much going up as we were to shiver coming 

 down. The view over Sassen Bay developed with the 

 ascent, but it lacked picturesqueness, because the sun shone 

 straight on to the hills, so that there were no shadows to 

 define and diversify their forms. Even the Temple looked 

 flat and mean under such illumination. On the east was a 

 line of hills, with an uninterestingly undulating crest ; over 

 against them was another similar line ; the quiet valley lay 

 between. About four miles up was the glacier's snout (928 

 feet), amongst a moraine chaos. There was a peculiar object 

 about fifty yards below the end of the glacier. It resembled 

 a small volcano, about forty yards wide, with a crater in 

 the midst, the diameter of which was about twenty yards, and 

 its depth, say, twenty feet. But the thing was made of ice, for 

 the most part in long blue prisms, extraordinarily beautiful, 

 whilst the crater contained a pool of water. It was like 

 the place found by the Wandering Jew, where "the cracking 

 earth shot forth bundles of frozen spangles." The pranks 

 played by the ice-foot below a glacier's end in these parts 

 are a constant surprise to any one only acquainted with 

 glacier phenomena in the temperate regions of the globe. 

 Any pile of snow that endures over one summer turns 

 into ice. This mound was doubtless originally a pile of 

 snow, perhaps drifted up by the eddying of winds in the 

 moraine hollow in the midst of which it lay. The forma- 

 tion of a pool of water in it would not be surprising, and 

 the pool once formed would tend to deepen and enlarge. 

 It would be interesting to know whether this object always 

 exists, or whether it is only a temporary phenomenon. As 

 it lies so near the frequently visited Sassen Bay, perhaps 

 future visitors may bring back news or, better still, photo- 

 graphs of it in years to come. 



Crossing the river by a frail ice-bridge, we mounted 

 the moraines and entered on the glacier. It was in no 



