June^ 1834. 



GLACIERS. 



281 



with a roaring noise, and immediately we saw the smooth out- 

 line of a wave travelling towards us. The men ran down 

 as quickly as they could to the boats ; for the chance of their 

 being dashed to pieces was evident. One of the seamen just 

 caught hold of the bows, as the curling breaker reached it : 

 he was knocked over and over but not hurt ; and the boats, 

 though thrice lifted on high and let fall again, received no 

 damage. This was most fortunate for us, for we were a 

 hundred miles distant from the ship, and we should have been 

 left without provisions or fire-arms. 



I had previously observed that some large fragments of 

 rock on the beach had been lately displaced : but until seeing 

 this wave I did not understand the cause. The structure of 

 the creek in which this happened was very curious. One 

 side was formed by a spur of mica slate (of which rock the 

 surrounding mountains were composed) ; the head by a cliff 

 of ice about forty feet high ; and the other side by a pro- 

 montory which was built up of huge rounded fragments 

 of granite and mica slate, and was more than fifty feet in 

 height. To account for the present position of these blocks, 

 where they must have long remained, for old trees were 

 growing on the upper parts ; we must suppose, either that 

 the glacier formerly advanced half a mile further outward, or 

 that the land stood at a rather different level. Whether we 

 are able fully to account, or not, for the height and size of this 

 promontory of boulders, certainly it must have been the work 

 of the glacier. One semi-rounded fragment of granite lying 

 just above high-water mark, was of enormous dimensions. 

 It projected six feet above the sand, and was buried to 

 an unknown depth : its shape was oval with a circumference 

 of thirty yards, so that the longer axis probably measured 

 about ten or eleven. This fragment must have come from 

 the higher parts of the range ; for the base of the mountain 

 was entirely composed of mica slate. 



The waves caused by the fall of the ice must be a most 

 powerful agent in rounding and heaping together these huge 

 fragments, and likewise in wearing away projecting points of 



