GLACIERS. 
215 
must remember, too, all this is upon a scale of such 
prodigious magnitude, that when we succeeded subse¬ 
quently in approaching the spot—where with a leap 
like that of Niagara one of these glaciers plunges down 
into the sea,—the eye, no longer able to take in its 
fluvial character, was content to rest in simple astonish¬ 
ment at what then appeared a lucent precipice of grey- 
green ice, rising to the height of several hundred feet 
above the masts of the vessel. 
As soon as we had got a little over our first feelings 
of astonishment at the panorama thus suddenly revealed 
to us by the lifting of the fog, I began to consider what 
would be the best way of getting to the anchorage 
on the west—or Greenland side of the island. We 
were still seven or eight miles from the shore, and the 
northern extremity of the island, round which we 
should have to pass, lay about five leagues off, bearing 
West by North, while between us and the land stretched 
a continuous breadth of floating ice. The hummocks, 
however, seemed to be pretty loose with openings here 
and there, so that with careful sailing I thought we 
might pass through, and perhaps on the farther side of 
the island come into a freer sea. Alas ! after having 
