FIRST PASSING THROUGH HELLGATE 267 



some flour paste we have succeeded in making the camera light- 

 proof. Thus I owe a second debt of gratitude to Miss Marie 

 Corelli, beside the pleasure of reading her book." 



The next day broke clear and still, raising our hopes as to our 

 progress through the ice. I must say that we took our fine blue 

 weather — little of it as we were blessed with — with a hearty 

 pleasure, and enjoyed it most thoroughly. We might be cold and 

 wet an hour later, but between the squalls it was not so disagree- 

 able, and we made the best of the breaks. 



It was not long under these favourable circumstances before 

 we reached the last curve of the channel, and were confronted by 

 another glacier of considerable size, coming down through a 

 depression in the midst of a mountain. Below the glacier the 

 shoulders and base of the mountain were covered with dark forests. 

 All round under the cliffs was, as I have said, deep water, how- 

 deep I do not know, as we had no means of taking soundings of 

 such depth. 



As there seemed little to be gained by landing at the foot of the 

 glacier we ran back to the camp of the previous night, where the 

 harbourage was at any rate somewhat better. While we were 

 yet ashore, a squall began to grow up in the sky to the west 

 and came down upon the water in an angry spatter of rain. It 

 subsided, however, as quickly as it had arisen, so we got afloat 

 again. Running back through the narrow throat of the channel, 

 we found that the wind, which had veered several points to the 

 north, had almost blocked it with a fleet of icebergs, that were 

 grinding together on the swell of the water. These we managed 

 to make our way through, and it was with some thankfulness that 

 we presently reached the farther shore on the east of the main 

 Fjord. We had no sooner arrived than it began to blow in heavy 

 gusts, and five minutes after the first of them — so quickly do the 

 seas rise upon this lake — we had to shift our anchorage. 



In an hour or two, having in the meantime laid in a good store 

 of firewood, and the heavy wind being succeeded by a series of cold 

 showers, we took advantage of the lull and headed up the main 

 Fjord to the north. But the wind, that had temporarily dropped, 

 soon resumed its fury, and the launch was hard put to it to keep her 



