104 THE WORLD OF ICE.

cape towards which they had been walking for sev-
eral hours. On passing this point they stopped with
an exclamation of amazement. Before them lay a
scene such as the Arctic Regions alone can produce.

In front lay a vast reach of the strait, which at
this place opened up abruptly and stretched away
northward, laden with floes, and fields, and hummocks,
and bergs of every shade and size, to the horizon,
where the appearance of the sky indicated open water.
Ponds of various sizes and sheets of water whose
dimensions entitled them to be styled lakes spangled
the white surface of the floes; and around these were
sporting innumerable flocks of wild-fowl, many of
which, being pure white, glanced like snow-flakes in
the sunshine. Far off to the west the ice came down
with heavy uniformity to the water’s edge. On the
right there was an array of cliffs whose frowning
grandeur filled them with awe. They varied from
twelve to fifteen hundred feet in height, and some of
the precipices descended sheer down seven or eight
hundred feet into the sea, over which they cast a
dark shadow.

Just at the feet of our young discoverers—for such
we may truly call them—a deep bay or valley trended
away to the right, a large portion of which was filled
with the spur of a glacier, whose surface was covered

 

with pink snow! One can imagine with what feelings
the two youths gazed on this beautiful sight. It
seemed as if that valley, instead of forming a portion
of the sterile region beyond the Arctic Circle, were one