Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/162

 ascent becomes gradual, decreasing to six degrees, where it finally blends with the mer de glace which appears to cover the land to the eastward.

At the foot of the glacier front there is a pile of broken fragments which have been detached from time to time. Some of them are very large—solid lumps of clear crystal ice many feet in diameter. One such mass, with an immense shower of smaller pieces, cracked off while we were looking at it, and came crashing down into the plain below.

The surface of the glacier curves gently upward from side to side. It does not blend with the slope of the mountain, but, breaking off abruptly, forms, as I have before observed, a deep gorge between the land and the ice. This gorge is interrupted in places by immense boulders which have fallen from the cliffs, or by equally large masses of ice which have broken from the glacier. Sometimes, however, these interruptions are of a different character, when the ice, moving bodily forward, has pushed the rocks up the hill-side in a confused wave.

The traveling along this winding gorge was laborious, especially as the snow-crusts sometimes gave way and let one's legs down between the sharp stones, or equally sharp ice; but a couple of miles brought us to a place where we could mount by using our axe in cutting steps, as Sonntag had done before.

We were now fairly on the glacier's back, and moved cautiously toward its centre, fearful at every step that a fissure might open under our feet, and let us down between its hard ribs. But no such accident happened, and we reached our destination, where the surface was perfectly smooth—an inclined plain of clear, transparent ice.