TRAVELS IN ICELAND* 



47 



been exposed to so many dangers : we soon gained the foot of 

 the mountain without sustaining any great fatigue or embar- 

 rassment, and arrived at the spot where we had left our at- 

 tendants; who informed us, that while we were on the moun- 

 tains they had not felt any strong wind, but had been incom- 

 moded by a drizzling rain, while the glacier was incessantly 

 covered with fog. This proves, that the atmosphere of vallies 

 is very different from that of high mountains. 



RAMPART OF STORES ON THE BORDER OF THE 

 GLACIER. 



Along the file of ice extending from the Geitland, we found 

 a rampart consisting of ruins of pumice-stone, and other rocky 

 particles of various sizes; and we also remarked in it some large 

 masses of stone which eight men could scarcely move. This 

 rampart is more than sixty feet in height, and runs along at a 

 few paces from the file of icy flakes already mentioned. 



This singular arrangement of nature struck us in a forcible 

 manner ; our observations induced us to think, that this accu- 

 mulation had proceeded from the base of the glacier, and that 

 it could only have been formed by some extraordinary shock. 

 One idea is founded on the following circumstances : first, it 

 clearly appears, that this chain of ice has been broken longi- 

 tudinally, since in the other glaciers it is found at the foot of 

 the mountains, where it forms a slope, so that one can ascend 

 without difficulty. Secondly, because in every part of the 

 glacier we discovered falls of water, and small rivulets ; and thatt 

 towards the bottom, where the ice is not very thick, we per- 

 ceived them through the clefts in that substance, while near the 

 top, where the ice is much stronger, and the clefts are more 

 contracted, we could only hear the murmuring of the water. 

 These springs take their course at the kind of rampart just 

 mentioned ; but it is not possible that they can proceed towards 

 the lake of fresh water in the neighbourhood of the glacier, 

 and from which a river takes its source. Thirdly, we rest our 

 opinion on the circumstance, that the stones which form the 

 rampart, are rounded and polished by the water, particularly 

 those of a small size. Hence from what we have said, it may 

 be presumed, that this quantity of stones and ruins has been 

 conveyed successively from ithe foot of the glacier by conti- 

 nual fails of water. The glacier itself is constituted of rocky 

 iubstances burnt and thrown together without order, and the 

 summits of which rise considerably above the icy fragments. 

 The waters are formed from subterraneous drains beneath the 

 rampart, while at the time when the chain of ice descended 

 as far as the foot of the mountain, their current must neces- 



