ON THE GREAT GLACIER. 171 



combed by long exposure to the weather, and the 

 sides facing the sun were covered with yellow, 

 green, or black lichen. The colour of the surface 

 of the glacier varied in every direction, sometimes 

 presenting a pale sea-green hue, at others, blue and 

 purple of every shade, dirty-white, gray, and here 

 and there black. The different formations of the 

 ice were very extraordinary. In some places were 

 numberless fantastically-shaped pinnacles and sharp 

 peaks of translucent bluish-green ice, which re- 

 flected beautiful prismatic colours in the bright 

 rays of the sun, and in others huge dome-like 

 masses, that in the distance looked like the ruins 

 of ancient Saracenic buildings. 



We experienced much difficulty in crossing some 

 of the widest crevasses, and my portable bridge 

 was in constant requisition ; indeed, if we had not 

 brought it with us, much time would have been 

 lost in unavoidable circumambulation, and search- 

 ing for narrow places which we could leap, or 

 natural ice-bridges ; whereas, with its aid we were 

 enabled to direct our course almost as the crow 

 flies. It was not, however, easy travelling, as in 



