CHAP. XL.] ICEBERGS. 367 



months by a huge barrier of ice. They were almost 

 all of picturesque shapes, and some of them of most 

 fantastic form ; three in particular, which came 

 within a mile of us. One presented a huge dome, 

 rising from the centre of a flat tabular mass ; an 

 other, more than 100 feet high, was precisely in the 

 form of a pyramid, quite sharp at the top, and the 

 angle formed by the meeting of two sides, very well 

 defined ; at the base of it rose a hummock, which 

 we called the Egyptian Sphinx. The third was 

 covered with pinnacles, and seemed like a portion of 

 the Glacier des Bossons, in the valley of Chamouni, 

 detached and afloat. Erect on one side of it stood 

 an isolated obelisk of ice, 100 feet high, which in 

 creased very slightly in size towards the base. Some 

 of these bodies appeared to the north, others far to 

 the south of us, the loftiest of the whole rising out of 

 the water to the height of 400 feet, according to the 

 conjecture of the seamen, who thought they could 

 not be far out in their estimate, as there was a 

 schooner alongside of it, and they could tell the 

 height of her mast within a few feet. We sailed 

 within half a mile of several bergs, which were 250 

 feet, and within a quarter of a mile of one 150 feet 

 in height, on which, by aid of the telescope, we dis 

 tinctly observed a great number of sea-birds, which 

 looked like minute black specks on a white ground. 

 I was most anxious to ascertain whether there was 

 any mud, stones, or fragments of rock on any one of 

 these floating masses, but after examining about forty 

 of them without perceiving any signs of foreign mat 

 ter, I left the deck when it was growing dusk. My 



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