I Gladly Took Advantage Of These Kindly Clouds To Make An
Effort To Cross The Few Miles Of The Glacier That Lay Between Me And
The Shore Of The Inlet.
I made a pair of goggles but am afraid to
wear them.
Fortunately the ice here is but little broken, therefore
I pulled my cap well down and set off about five o'clock. I got on
pretty well and camped on the glacier in sight of the main camp,
which from here in a straight line is only five or six miles away. I
went ashore on Granite Island and gleaned a little fossil wood with
which I made tea on the ice.
July 20. I kept wet bandages on my eyes last night as long as I
could, and feel better this morning, but all the mountains still
seem to have double summits, giving a curiously unreal aspect to the
landscape. I packed everything on the sled and moved three miles
farther down the glacier, where I want to make measurements. Twice
to-day I was visited on the ice by a hummingbird, attracted by the
red lining of the bear-skin sleeping-bag.
I have gained some light on the formation of gravel-beds along
the inlet. The material is mostly sifted and sorted by successive
railings and washings along the margins of the glacier-tributaries,
where the supply is abundant beyond anything I ever saw elsewhere.
The lowering of the surface of a glacier when its walls are not too
steep leaves a part of the margin dead and buried and protected from
the wasting sunshine beneath the lateral moraines.
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