150 
CREVASSES. 
- t 
marked than upon any Alpine glacier with which 1 
am acquainted. When close to the island-rocks and 
looking out upon the upper table of the glacier, I was 
struck with the homely analogy of the hatter-cake 
spreading itself out under the ladle of the housewife, 
the upper surface less affected by friction, and rolling 
forward in consequence. 
The crevasses bore the marks of direct fracture and 
the more gradual action of surface-drainage. The 
extensive water-shed between their converging planes 
gave to the icy surface most of the hydrographic fea¬ 
tures of a river-system. The ice-horn rivers which 
divided them were margined occasionally with spires 
of discolored ice, and generally lost themselves in the 
central areas of the glacier before reaching its fore¬ 
ground. Occasionally, too, the face of the glacier was 
cut by vertical lines, which, as in the Alpine growths, 
were evidently outlets for the surface-drainage. Every 
thing was of course bound in solid ice when I looked 
at it; but the evidences of torrent-action were unequi¬ 
vocal, and Mr. Bonsall and Mr. Morton, at their visits 
of the preceding year, found both cascades and water- 
tunnels in abundance. 
The height of this ice-wall at the nearest point was 
about three hundred feet, measured from the water’s 
edge; and the unbroken right line of its diminishing 
perspective showed that this might be regarded as its 
constant measurement. It seemed, in fact, a great icy 
table-land, abutting with a clean precipice against the 
sea. This is indeed characteristic of all those Arctic 
