ICE-CASCADES. 
335 
feet from the summit; the lower of about the same 
height, but with an angle of some fifty degrees; the 
two communicating by a slightly-inclined platform per¬ 
haps half a mile long. This ice was unbroken through 
its entire extent. It came down from the level of the 
upper country, a vast icicle, with the folds or waves 
impressed upon it by its onward motion undisturbed 
by any apparent fracture or crevasse. Thus it rolled 
onward over the rugged and contracting platform below, 
and thence poured its semi-solid mass down upon the 
plain. Where it encountered occasional knobs of rock 
it passed round them, bearing still the distinctive 
marks of an imperfect fluid obstructed in its descent; 
and its lower fall described a dome, or, to use the more 
accurate simile of Forbes, a great outspread clam-shell 
of ice. 
It seemed as if an interior ice-lake was rising above 
the brink of the cliffs that confined it. In many places 
it could be seen exuding or forcing its way over the 
very crest of the rocks, and hanging down in huge icy 
stalactites seventy and a hundred feet long. These 
were still lengthening out by the continuous overflow, 
some of them breaking off’ as their weight became too 
great for their tenacity, others swelling by constant 
supplies from the interior, but spitting off fragmentary 
masses with an unremitting clamor. The plain below 
these cataractine glaciers was piling up with the debris, 
while torrents of the melted rubbish found their way, 
foaming and muddy, to the sea, carrying gravel and 
rocks along with them. 
