west; the glaciers, rearing their proud crests almost to the tops of
mountains between which they were lodged, and defying the power of the
solar beams, were scattered in various directions about the sea-coast
and in the adjoining bays. Beds of snow and ice filling extensive
hollows, and giving an enamelled coat to adjoining valleys, one of
which, commencing at the foot of the mountain where we stood, extended
in a continual line towards the north, as far as the eye could
reach--mountain rising above mountain, until by distance they dwindled
into insignificance, the whole contrasted by a cloudless canopy of
deepest azure, and enlightened by the rays of a blazing sun, and the
effect, aided by a feeling of danger, seated as we were on the pinnacle
of a rock almost surrounded by tremendous precipices--all united to
constitute a picture singularly sublime."

One of the glaciers of Spitzbergen is 11 miles in breadth when it
reaches the sea-coast, the highest part of the precipitous front
adjoining the sea being over 400 feet, and it extends far upwards
towards the summit of the mountain. The surface forms an inclined plane
of smooth unsullied snow, the beauty and brightness of which render it a
conspicuous landmark on that inhospitable shore. From the perpendicular
face great masses of ice from time to time break away,

Whose blocks of sapphire seem to mortal eye
Hewn from caerulean quarries of the sky.[65]

Field ice is comparatively flat, though it may be piled up perhaps as
much as 50 feet. It is from glaciers that true icebergs, the beauty and
brilliance of which Arctic travellers are never tired of describing,
take their origin.

The attempts to reach the North Pole have cost many valuable lives;
Willoughby and Hudson, Behring and Franklin, and many other brave
mariners; but yet there are few expeditions more popular than those to
"the Arctic," and we cannot but hope that it is still reserved for the
British Navy after so many gallant attempts at length to reach the North
Pole.

FOOTNOTES:

[56] Shelley.

[57] Campbell.

[58] Holmes.

[59] Bell.

[60] Hemans.

[61] Gunther, _History of Fishes_.

[62] Darwin, _Coral Reefs_.

[63] Abercromby, _Seas and Skies in many Latitudes_.

[64] _A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago._

[65] Montgomery.

CHAPTER X

THE STARRY HEAVENS

A man can hardly lift up his eyes towards the heavens without
wonder and veneration,