449 GLACIERS—VIEW—MOUNTAINS. May 1830. 
large, and just on what might be called neutral ground between 
the two tribes, it is not unlikely that there may have been 
many a meeting there—perhaps many a battle. At the sepa- 
ration, or meeting of the two channels, it was high water at a 
quarter before five this morning, and the flood came from the 
west, about a knot an hour; the ebb-tide set to the west at 
about half that strength. Much drift-wood and large fragments 
of ice were carried along with it. Between some of the moun- 
tains the ice extended so widely as to form immense glaciers, 
which were faced, towards the water, by lofty cliffs. During a 
beautifully fine and still night, the view from our fireside, in 
this narrow channel, was most striking, though confined. 
Thickly-wooded and very steep mountains shut us in on three 
sides, and opposite, distant only a few miles, rose an immense 
barrier of snow-covered mountains, on which the moon was 
shining brightly. The water between was so glassy, that their 
outline might be distinctly traced in it: but a death-like still- 
ness was sometimes broken by masses of ice falling from the 
opposite glaciers, which crashed, and reverberated around—like 
eruptions of a distant volcano. 
“10. Before daylight this morning, we were on our oars ; 
and by the time the sun was high enough for observing, were 
many miles westward of our resting-place. After sights, while 
the men were cooking, I obtained a few bearings, and prepared 
to return, not intending to go further westward. I saw water 
from that spot, more than twenty miles to the west (by com- 
pass) ; and then my view was limited by the channel turning 
towards the south. In those twenty miles, not the slightest 
appearance of an opening to the northward could be seen; 
mountain succeeded mountain, in unbroken succession. Three 
ridges, or ranges, could be traced, lying parallel to each other ; 
and the nearest summits of those in the third, or furthest range, 
stretching from the northward and eastward of me, and conti- 
nuing, as far as eye could reach, towards the north and west, 
were at least five leagues distant. Their height I supposed to 
be about four thousand feet : that of those nearest to me, about 
two thousand: and of those in the middle range, mentioned 
