chap, xvni E KM AN BAY 247 



the top. The glacier itself for some distance was covered 

 with large conical heaps of mud with stone tables supported 

 on pedestals of ice, and with liquid hollows of clay. It 

 is a large and wide ice-field, and is the confluence of various 

 glaciers. Many glacier - streams find their way over this 

 ice-field. Sometimes they are but shallow troughs ; some- 

 times they cut down into its depth in blue ravines ; some- 

 times they are suddenly lost, falling perpendicularly into 

 bottomless caverns, or reverberating from glacier mills. But 

 none of this ice-field is, strictly speaking, crevassed. I made 

 a careful observation with the compass bearings upon posi- 

 tion, rise, or incline of the various glaciers and cols. It 

 was cold work, however, especially as we had become very 

 wet in our passage of the rivers and the bay, and it was not 

 long before I sent Pedersen back and travelled on alone. 



The glacier marked at the north-east of the ice-field was 

 the one I determined to attempt, because it was clear that 

 its direction promised best. I should at least, I hoped, be 

 able to reach some point from which I could see down 

 to Wijde Bay. In this I was disappointed, as indeed I 

 deserved to be, without ice-axe, companions, or ropes upon 

 a dangerous glacier. This glacier, unlike all the others 

 which flow into the ice-field, does not meet it by an insen- 

 sible gradation, but drops suddenly, and presents a snout 

 which has a rounded backbone split by a deep crevasse 

 at every few feet. At first these were narrow, and I had no 

 difficulty in stepping across them, but they got worse and 

 worse, until having crossed one by a snow-bridge which 

 yielded under me, I was brought up by another of con- 

 siderable width which offered a crossing at one point only, 

 where an immense wedge of ice appeared to be firmly 

 jammed between its walls. Having no ice-axe with me, I 

 was obliged to test this very cautiously with my toe, when the 

 whole thing fell in powder and crash. Hitherto the crevasses 



