THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 71 



clambered with Mr. Lacld to an altitude of about twenty-five 

 hundred feet, from whence we enjoyed a magnificent view of 

 the numerous islands and fiords that lay below, of the main- 

 land of Greenland, and of the great ocean beyond. Twice we 

 crossed spurs of the glacier, and our feet sank deep in the soft 

 snow; for the sun was so hot that we partially stripped ourselves 

 during our ascent. The moss that for the most part covered 

 the rocks was green and beautiful, and scattered about in 

 rich profusion were great numbers of wild flowers gorgeous in 

 their hues. The glaciers are the mothers of icebergs, which 

 are not formed of ice frozen on the surface of the polar seas, 

 but are pieces broken from the sea-ends of Arctic glaciers. 

 The interior of Greenland is covered with a vast ice-cap, from 

 which, down the valleys that extend between the central 

 tableland to the Atlantic on the east and Baffin's Bay on the 

 west, the ice glides down in frozen streams resistlessly to the 

 sea. During the brief Arctic summer the action of the waves 

 upon the debouching mouths of these great frozen rivers, 

 aided by the unwonted warmth of the sun, detaches hundreds 

 of thousands of tons of ice from the great glaciers, and thus ice- 

 bergs are launched upon their career. This breaking off of 

 icebergs from the parent glacier is called calving, owing 

 to a fancied resemblance between the thunderous groans 

 that accompany the process to the moaning of a cow in 

 travail. 



By six o'clock we were gathered at the foot of the steep 

 mountains, and after a hasty meal started at once for a thirty- 

 mile pull back to the ship. 



After we were out of the fiord we encountered a heavy sea ; 

 as the wind was dead against us, we had a hard pull until 

 we got in the lee of some islands, and the day was breaking 

 before we got back to the Miranda. 



A few hours later we started away from Sukkertoppen for 

 Disco. Thoroughly tired out after our long pull, I was sleep- 



