Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/471

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rushed in a series of cascades through a deep gorge to the sea, and from the valley a number of little rivulets gurgled among the stones, or wound gently through the soft moss-beds. Tracing one of these to its source, I came upon a glen which was terminated abruptly by a glacier, appearing at a little distance like a draped curtain of white satin drawn across the narrow passage, as if to screen some sacred chamber of the hills. As I approached nearer this white curtain assumed more solid shape, and I observed that a multitude of bright fountains fluttered over it. Near its centre a narrow Gothic archway led into a spacious grotto filled with a soft cerulean light, fretted with pendants of most fantastic shape and of rare transparency, which were reflected, as in a silver mirror, on the still surface of a limped pool, from which gushed forth a crystal rivulet, pure and sparkling as the cypress-embowered waters that laved the virgin limbs of the huntress-queen.

While peering into the deep recesses of this wonderful cave, so chaste and exquisite, where solitude appeared to dwell alone and undisturbed except by the soft music of streams, I became suddenly conscious of having been enticed into danger, Actæon-like, unawares. A mass of ice broke from the glacier front and, splitting into numerous fragments, the shower came crushing down upon the rocks and in the water near me, and sent me flying precipitately and with my curiosity still unsatisfied.

Returning to the lake, I followed around its green border, plucking, as I went, a nosegay of bright flowers, which have so pleasing an association that they will not find place in the "botanical collections," but, rather, in another collection,—mementos, if less