SLEDGE JOURNEY INTO INGLEFIELD GULF 141 



The glacier, which forms much of the eastern wall of Ingle- 

 field Gulf, has a frontage of about ten miles, and is the largest 

 of the series of giant glaciers in which are here concentrated 

 the energies of the ice-cap. North of it lie the Smithson 

 Mountains, and farther beyond, a vast congeries of ice-streams 

 which circle westward and define the northern head of the gulf. 

 To the eastern sheet, upon whose bosom no human being had 

 ever stepped, and on whose beauty and grandeur no white 

 person had ever gazed, we gave the name of Heilprin Glacier, 

 in honor of Prof. Angelo Heilprin, of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia. 



On the upward voyage to Greenland we had passed num- 

 bers of glaciers, beginning with the great Frederikshaab ice- 

 stream. I had seen the distant gleaming of the Jacobshavn 

 Glacier, and after passing Upernavik we were never without 

 a glacier in sight, and yet it was not until September, when 

 Mr. Peary was able to get out in the boat, and we went to the 

 head of McCormick Bay to see the inland ice-party ofif, that I 

 came in actual contact with one of these streams of ice. About 

 eight miles above Redcliffe, on the same side of the bay, there 

 is a hanging glacier, which has peered at us past the shore 

 cliffs ever since we entered McCormick Bay. This glacier is 

 supported upon a great pile of gravel, looking like a railway 

 fill, which gives it the appearance of being upon stilts. It was 

 a peculiar experience to see the red-brown rocks and cliffs 

 glowing in the sun, and this great vertical wall of blue ice 

 standing out beyond them, with little streams of water trickling 



