Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ... fields of the 'Inland ice, ' which grew bluer and bluer and more and more rent and scarred as it fell towards the sea, and ending in lofty cliffs of seamed and fissured ice. From these great blue walls come all the icebergs and smaller blocks that are floating in the water round. Above, the snowfield is a simple (itR LAST ENCAMPMENT ON THE EAST COAST ON THE MORNING OF AUGUST ii (From a photograph) white expanse, broken only now and again by the blue streak which marks a wide crevasse; slowly it passes away inwards and out of sight, ending in a white ridge which shows almost warm against the green-blue sky. Nature has not many sounds in these parts. Only the petulant screams of the terns pierce the ear as one stands and gazes at the grand and simple beauty of this desolate landscape. From time to time, too, one hears from the glaciers, whenever a new fissure forms or some mass of ice is jerked suddenly forwards, a sullen rumble which has the most striking likeness to a cannon shot. If for a moment one forgets one's surroundings, or hears these reports in one's early morning sleep, the deception is singularly complete. But we have, in fact, no time to spend in the contemplation of Nature's wonders. The sun has long been calling us to work, so we must get our breakfast over with all speed. Most of the party have to go to work at once to scrape the rust off the sledgerunners and then off the steel-shod 'ski.' In their present state, after the ravages of salt-water and damp, they are all absolutely useless. Dietrichson's business is to make a map of the bay, the point and the adjacent glaciers, while Sverdrup and I are to set out upon our first journey on the ' Inland ice.' We must needs discover if an ascent is possible just here, and which..