180 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



reached a height of 7,200 feet on a spur of St. Elias, 

 though not actually on the main mass. The entire 

 country was almost entirely composed of glaciers ; 

 their area where they are almost perfectly flat cannot be 

 less round Mount St. Elias alone, and included between 

 Cape Spencer, the Pacific Ocean, the Copper Eiver, 

 and a line drawn parallel to the sea at a distance of 

 50 miles, than 10,000 square miles, or including all 

 the ice within this area, than 17,000 square miles. 

 Excepting Greenland these glaciers are the most 

 extensive in the world outside the arctic or antarctic 

 regions. 



On the 30th of July we found ourselves back again 

 at Icy Bay. The boat was hauled down the beach 

 and packed with the baggage ; by midnight we were 

 all ready to start. We numbered nine persons, and 

 found it as much as we could do to move her sea- 

 wards on the underwash of each succeeding wave. We 

 discarded boots and coats. The water felt freezingly 

 cold, and was almost fresh and sweet enough to drink, 

 owing to the huge volumes poured into the ocean by 

 the melting of the surrounding glaciers. The surf, as 

 might have been expected, appeared enormous ; a 

 few yards from land the water was deep, and the 

 waves, therefore, broke only when they had arrived 

 close in to the shore. Presently a huge roller advanced 

 towards us like a wall of water, the foam rushed under 

 us and caused us to gasp for breath. Now was the 

 moment. Exerting our strength, we rushed the boat 

 do\Vn upon the retiring flood. We were now nearer 



