426 NEW LAND. 



I shall not forget the moment when we entered the tunnel. 

 Brave I did not feel I openly confess it ; in fact, I was afraid, 

 rather than otherwise. And yet it was not fear that had most 

 hold on me, but rather an uneasy feeling of awe. 



Here were lofty vaults and spaciousness between the walls. 

 From the roof hung threateningly above our heads gigantic blocks 

 of ice, seamed and cleft and glittering sinisterly ; and all around 

 were icicles like steel-bright spears, and lances piercing downwards 

 on us. Along the walls were grotto after grotto, vault after vault, 

 with pillars and capitals in rows like giants in rank ; and over the 

 whole shone a ghost-like bluish-white light which became deeper 

 and gloomier as we went on. It was like fairyland, beautiful and 

 fear-inspiring at the same time ; it was like driving straight into 

 Soria Moria Castle, the castle 'east of the sun, and west of the 

 moon,' the most glorious of them all. 



I dared not speak. It seemed to me that in doing so I 

 should be committing a deed of desecration ; I felt like one who 

 has impiously broken into something sacred which Nature had 

 wished to keep closed to every mortal eye. I felt mean and 

 contemptible as I drove through all this purity. The sledges 

 jolted from block to block, awakening thundering echoes in their 

 passage ; it seemed as if all the spirits of the ice had been 

 aroused and called to arms against the intruders on their 

 church-like peace. 



I breathed more freely when I saw a glimpse of daylight in 

 the distance, and so probably did Fosheim. We looked at one 

 another. It is very wonderful, now and again, to come right under 

 the mighty hand of Nature. 



