THE GLACIERS OF GREENLAND. 91 



which would have needed only a lady's thimble for a flower- 

 pot, and a white chick weed. Dotting the few feet of green 

 around me were seen the yellow blossoms of the more hardy 

 poppy, the purple potentilla, and the white, purple, and yellow 

 saxifrages. 



This little oasis was literally imbedded in ice. The water 

 which had flowed through it had frozen in the holes, and 

 spread itself out in a crystal sheet upon the rocks and stones 

 around. A few specimens of the tiny blossoms were laid in 

 my note-book, a sprig of heather and a saxifrage were stuck in 

 my button-hole, and with these souvenirs we left this garden- 

 spot which the glacier was soon to cover forever from human 

 eyes. . . . 



In the autumn of 1860 I was favored with an opportunity 

 to make a more important exploration of this great mer de 

 glace, having from my winter harbor at Port Foulke ascer- 

 tained that it had broken through the mountain-chain at the 

 head of the bay in which my harbor was situated, and was 

 there approaching the sea. Up this glacier, which had thus 

 forced the rocky ramparts, I made my way with a small party 

 of men, attaining an altitude of about 5,000 feet, and extend- 

 ing my observations seventy miles from the coast. The jour- 

 ney possessed the more value that it was entirely novel as re- 

 gards the interior of Greenland. I was finally driven back by 

 a severe gale of wind, which, being accompanied by a sudden 

 fall of temperature, placed my party, for the time, in great 

 jeopardy, as my tent afforded no shelter ; but I had gone far 

 enough to determine, with some degree of accuracy, the char- 

 acter of the interior ; and the information thus acquired, in 

 connection with my journey with Mr. Wilson in 1853, as just 

 related furnishes an important addition to our knowledge of 

 the great glacier system of the Greenland Continent. East- 

 ward from the position attained on both of these journeys no 

 mountains were visible — nothing but a uniform inclined plane 

 of whiteness, a solid sea of ice, hundreds and hundreds of feet 

 in depth, steadily rising until lost in the distance against the 

 sky. A full description of the journey of 1860 has been pub- 

 lished in my " Open Polar Sea." 



This vast body of ice, now known as Humboldt Glacier, is 



