THE ICE-BELT. 
161 
up the ice-fields, so as to make them almost as impass¬ 
able as the floes; and between Fern Rock and the 
gravestone, where I used to pass with my sledges, 
there is built a sort of garden-wall of crystal, fully 
twenty feet high. It needs no iron spikes or broken 
bottles to defend its crest from trespassers. 
THE BELT-ICES. 
“ Mr. Sontag amuses me quite as much as he does 
himself with his daily efforts to scale it.” 
My next extract is of a few days later. 
“ February 1, Wednesday.—The ice-foot is the most 
wonderful and unique characteristic of our high 
northern position. The spring-tides have acted on it 
VOL. i.—11 
