Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/221

Rh rising in the most graceful form in a clear and cheerful atmosphere: it was clad in the whitest snow; a rich cloud concealed a narrow space just below its summit, and a few patches of dark protruding rock, which, from their position, did not afford a rest for the snow, gave a pleasing variety to the extensive mass of white; these appeared to be of the darkest blue colour, not probably from the hue of the stone, but from the tint given by distance; a curtain of mist, in a direct line, took from my sight the pedestal and base of this elevated mountain, and formed a relief to the dark boundary of the cliff.

The south-west side of the island appeared to be volcanic, and on observation the relics of a crater became discernible. From the south-west end, a most abrupt termination arrested my attention. It appeared to be unlike the rock that formed the other part of the boundary of the island, and seemed as though it had been disjointed-from the cliff by some extraordinary convulsion of nature. If ever there had been a continuity from this island to that of Iceland, here was unquestionably its course; and it is an extraordinary coincidence, that this apparently disjointed part was in the direct line to that island. The surface of Jan Mayne that came under my view had but little snow upon it, and that only in small patches, drifted into hollows; the rest of the soil had an unvaried covering of short herbage like grass. The wind blowing a very fresh breeze, accompanied by those dangerous squalls so