Identifier: arcticexploratio01kane (find matches)
Title: Arctic explorations: the second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55
Year: 1856 (1850s)
Authors: Kane, Elisha Kent, 1820-1857
Subjects: Grinnell Expedition 1853-1855)
Publisher: Philadelphia, Childs & Peterson (etc., etc.)
Contributing Library: University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Digitizing Sponsor: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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At its northern extremity,on the brink of a deep ravine which has worn its way among the ruins, there stands a solitary column or minaret-tower, as sharply finished as if it had been cast for the Place Vendome. Yet the length of the shaft alone is four hundred and eighty feet; and it rises on a plinth or pedestal itself two hundred and eighty feet high. I remember well the emotions of my party as it first broke upon our view. Cold and sick as I was, I brought back a sketch of it, which may have interest for the reader, though it scarcely suggests the imposing dignity of this magnificent landmark. Those who are happily familiar with the writings of Tennyson, and have communed with his spirit in the solitudes of a wilderness, will apprehend the impulse that inscribed the scene with his name. Still beyond this, comes the archipelago which bears the name of our brig, studded with the names of those on board of her who adhered to all the fortunes of the expedition; and at its eastern cape spreads out the
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J\>l (i^:; f>ij li ^5;■ jV f-1 V THE GREAT GLACIER. 225 Great GLacier of Humljoldt. My recollections of this glacier are very distinct. The day was beautifully clear on which I first saw it; and I have a number of sketches made as we drove along in view of its mag-nificent face. They disappoint me, giving too much white surface and badly-fading distances, the gran-deur of the few bold and simple lines of nature being almost entirely lost. I will not attempt to do better by florid description.Men only rhapsodize about Niagara and the ocean.My notes speak simply of the long ever-shining line of cliff diminished to a well-pointed wedge in the per-spective ; and again, of the face of glistening ice,sweeping in a long curve from the low interior, the facets in front intensely illuminated by the sun.But this line of cliff rose in solid glassy wall three hundred feet above the water-level, with an unknownun fathomable depth below it; and its curved face,sixty miles in length from Cape Agassiz

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