300 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
been less than thirty, or thirty-five miles; or its greatest 
breadth—less than nine or ten; but so completely did it 
fill up the higher end of the valley, that it was as much 
as you .could do to distinguish the further mountains 
peeping up above its surface. The height of the precipice 
where it fell into the sea, I should judge to have been 
about 120 feet. 
On the left—a still more extraordinary sight pre¬ 
sented itself. A kind of baby glacier actually hung sus¬ 
pended half way on the hill-side, like a tear in the act 
of rolling down the furrowed cheek of the mountain. 
I have tried to convey to you a notion of the falling 
impetus impressed on the surface of the Jan Mayen 
ice rivers; but in this case so unaccountable did it seem 
that the overhanging mass of ice should not continue to 
thunder down upon its course, that one’s natural impulse 
was to shrink from crossing the path along which a 
breath—a sound—might precipitate the suspended ava¬ 
lanche into the valley. Though, perhaps pretty exact in 
outline and general effect, the sketch I have made of 
this wonderful scene, will never convey to you a correct 
notion of the enormous scale of the distances, and size 
of its various features. 
