several detached pinnacles of sombre-looking weather-worn granite that
had withstood the vigor of many Arctic winters; on the other hand a
seemingly inaccessible wall, vividly recalling the eastern face of the
Rock of Gibraltar. This sight, strange and weird beyond description, did
not fail to awaken odd thoughts and emotions, far removed as we were
from all human intercourse, amid solitude and desolation, and for a
moment the mind absorbed a dash of the local coloring. Selecting what
was believed to be the most favorable spot to ascend the cliff, two of
our party in making the attempt would occasionally detach large
bowlders, which came bounding, down like a bombardment.

The attempt was abandoned after climbing a few hundred feet. In company
with several others, I tried what seemed to be a more practicable way--a
gully filled with snow--up which we had gone scarcely a hundred feet
when it, too, had to be abandoned. In the meantime the skin boat had
been brought over the ice, and one of the men pointing out another place
where he thought we might ascend, it was the work of but a few minutes
to cross a bit of open water which led to the foot of a steep snowbank,
somewhat discolored from the gravel brought down by melting snow.
Without despairing, and being in that frame of mind prepared to incur
danger to a reasonable extent for the sake of knowledge, we climbed
several hundred feet over the snow and ice, having to cut steps with an
axe that we had brought along, before reaching the top. The latter stage
of this proceeding was like scrambling over the dome of the Washington
Capitol with a great yawning cliff below, and was well calculated to try
the nerve of any one except a competent mountaineer or a sailor
accustomed to a doddering mast. A ravine was next reached, through which
tumbled with loud noise and wild confusion, over broken rocks and amid
some scant lichens and mosses, a stream of pure water, which had
hollowed out a shaft or funnel, forming a glacier mill or moulin. It was