actually measured-make it to have attained a height of upwards of one hundred feet.

It was now summer time, but there were signs of winter coming on, and we prepared to depart lest the ice should stay us. As we came down to Reykjavik we met caravans of inland dwellers, who had been to town while they might, to lay in their winter goods-deal boards, rope, brandy, rye, wheat, salt, soap, sugar, snuff. These, of course, are imported from Europe; in return for them they export raw wool, knitted stockings, cured cod, fishoil, whale-blubber, fox-skins, eider-down.

Iceland is considerably larger than Ireland, yet it contains only 60,000 persons. Of the 38,000 square miles which it occupies, 33,000 are entirely desolate, disordered pyramids of ice and lava, periodically devastated by deluges of molten stone and boiling mud, or overwhelmed with whirlwinds of intermingled snow and cinders,—an unfinished corner of the universe, where the elements of chaos still rage with unbridled fury.-Letters from High Latitudes.

SPITZBERGEN AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.

THE capital of Iceland is on the west side. The passage is dangerous from it, except in summer; for, as winter draws on, immense icebergs prowl like garotters about the seas, and a solid belt of ice binds Iceland and Greenland together. The appearance of this N.W. coast is very striking. It is like a huge human hand spread out upon the sea, the fingers just reaching over the Arctic circle, while up between them run the gloomy fiords, sometimes to the length of twenty, thirty, or forty miles. Anything more grand and mysterious than their solemn portals, as we passed from cape to cape, it is impossible to conceive. Yet as we steamed away into the Arctic circle, as it was June, the white sun blazed overhead, the thermometer was at 72°, and it really felt more like crossing the equator. We began to hold joyous festival on deck, when suddenly the weather changed, the mercury dropped to freezing-point, a dense fog enveloped the vessels, flakes of snow began floating down, and, as we moved on northwards, the icebergs seemed to surround us. The fog was thicker than I should have thought the atmosphere capable of sustaining; it seemed to hang in solid festoons from the masts and spars. To say "you could not see your hand" ceased to be

any longer figurative; even the ice was hid-except those fragments immediately adjacent, whose ghastly brilliancy the mist itself could not quite extinguish, as they glimmered round the vessel like a circle of luminous phantoms. Sea and sky alike were perfectly still, not a ripple trickled against the little vessel. At length we caught sight of the island of Jan Mayen—at least, of a lofty mountain upon it. The top suddenly appeared out of the clouds with the bright sun glittering upon it in dazzling whiteness, the base being still enshrouded in thick mist. The top of the mountain looks from one point of view like the spire of a church, on another side it is broad. But to see the glaciers upon it! Imagine a mighty river of as great a volume as the Thames started down the side of a mountain; bursting over every impediment; whirled into a thousand eddies; tumbling and raging on from ledge to ledge in quivering cataracts of foam -then suddenly struck rigid. After sailing about for a while, and meeting some heavy difficulties with icebergs, we departed to Hammerfest, in Norway, the most northern town in Europe. It was here that I first set eyes on a Laplander. Turning the corner of one of the ill-built houses, we suddenly ran over a diminutive little personage, in a white woollen tunic, bordered with red and yellow stripes, green trousers fastened round the ankles, and reindeer boots, curving up at the toes like Turkish slippers. On her head-for, notwithstanding her trousers, she turned out to be a lady-was perched a gay particoloured cap, fitting close round the face. The men dress nearly like the women. They are very ugly, but intelligent, and possess a good opinion of themselves, believing that Noah owes his fame to having been the first Lapp. When a couple is to be married, if a priest is in the way, they perhaps send for him; but otherwise the young lady's papa merely strikes a flint and steel together, and it is done. When they die, a hatchet, flint, and steel are buried with the defunct, in case he should find himself chilly on his long journey. As soon as a young lady is born, after having been duly rolled in the snow, her father gives her so many deer for her dowry. Her wealth thereafter depends upon how these increase and multiply. When a man falls in love with a young lady, he-"goes and tells her so, of course," you say. Not a bit of it. He sends for a friend and a bottle of brandy. The friend, armed therewith, seeks the young lady out. The business and brandy are opened at the same time, the lover remaining outside. If the friend's eloquence is successful, the happy one is called in, and they are betrothed by solemnly rubbing noses together. The

happy man then works for his father-in-law for two or three years, after which the marriage takes place.

Leaving Norway, we again went northward, and on the 6th of August, after hard battles with the ice, we landed in English Bay, Spitzbergen.

How shall I give you an idea of the wonderful scene in the midst of which we found ourselves? I think perhaps its most striking feature was the stillness, and deadness, and calmness of this new world: ice and rock and water surrounded us; not a sound of any kind interrupted the silence; the sea did not break upon the shore; no bird or any living thing was visible; the midnight sun, by this time muffled in a transparent mist, shed an awful, mysterious lustre on glacier and mountain; no atom of vegetation gave token of the earth's life; a universal numbness and dumbness seemed to pervade the solitude. I suppose in scarcely any other part of the world is this appearance of deadness so strikingly exhibited. On the stillest summer day in England there is always perceptible an under-tone of life thrilling through the atmosphere; and though no breeze should stir a single leaf, yet, in default of motion, there is always a sense of growth; but here not so much as a blade of grass was to be seen on the sides of the barren hills, Rocks, and ice which never melts, constitute the landscape.

We were here in summer, yet the thermometer remained below freezing, though the cold was never intense. But, towards evening, the bay in which the schooner lay became covered with thin ice. If such is the power of the cold under the slightest weakening of the sun's power (for you will remember that at this time of year he shines day and night), it may be imagined what is the result of his total disappearance beneath the horizon. Winter is simply unendurable. Several attempts have been made to winter on the island, but they have all terminated fatally. Some poor Dutch sailors who tried the experiment kept a log-book, which was posted up by the survivors, even to the last man. And when the place was visited in the following summer, it was found with the sentence unfinished, and the poor fellow lying beside it, his contorted attitude showing the agony he had suffered.

No description can give an adequate idea of the intense rigour of the six months' winter in this part of the world. Stones crack with the noise of thunder; in a crowded hut the breath of its occupants will fall in flakes of snow; wine and spirits turn to ice; the snow burns like caustic; if it touches the flesh, it brings the skin away with it; the soles of your stockings may be burnt

off your feet before you feel the slightest warmth from the fire; linen taken out of boiling water instantly stiffens to the consistency of a wooden board; and heated stones will not prevent the sheets of the bed from freezing. If these are the effects of the climate within an air-tight, fire-warmed, crowded hut, what must they be among the dark, storm-lashed mountain peaks outside?

Of course we went hunting, and killed one bear, which we cut up to eat, but then became afraid of the meat, and threw it into the sea. However, one part of him came in useful besides his skin-namely, his grease. I observed that for some days after the dismemberment of the bear my ship's company presented an unaccountably sleek appearance. As for the steward, his head and whiskers seemed carved out of black marble: a varnished boot would not have looked half so bright. I could have seen to shave myself in his black hair.-Letters from High Latitudes.

ASCENT OF THE WETTERHORN (1220 FT.): BERNESE ALPS.

*

HALF an hour's ascent over the herbage and among the boulders brought us to a stone under which we were to pass the night. It was a splendid wild scene-no distant prospect, but we were in the very heart of the crags and the ice-surrounded by some of the grandest glaciers and precipices in the Alps. I climbed alone a neighbouring height; the glacier, by whose side we had ascended, lay white and cold at its base; but the tints of the evening sky over the mountains which border the valley of Lauterbrunnen were wonderfully rich, while every peak and glacier around was bathed in a flood of purple.

I cast one look towards that majestic summit upon which I hoped, before to-morrow's sunset, to have stood, and returned to more practical cares and occupations, stimulated by a pleasing excitement, and filled with all the mingled wonder, delight, and awe, which take possession of the soul, when evening falls amidst the solemn silence of these Alpine fastnesses, and which no man can or would repress. I found our sleeping-den to consist of a low, arched cave, formed by two or three rocks, one of which, somewhat hollow on the under side, had fallen curiously upon the others, so as to make a kind of vaulted roof. Two sides

* Glacier, a moving mass of ice; viscous fluid, or ice-torrent.

were supplied by the boulders on which it rested, and, in the course of time, the earth had so accumulated about them, that all round their bases they were hermetically sealed, and the ground without was two or three feet higher than the floor of the cavern. Mould had also gathered about their points of contact, so that the holes and crannies were filled up, and the shelter was complete. Only one narrow entrance was left, and the care of the hunters had blocked this up with stones, which we removed. There was barely room for one to enter at a time, and we were obliged to creep backwards through the aperture. Within, the hunters, whose calling had led them to sleep in this natural chamber, had strewn the floor of earth with a thick covering of short mountain hay, which gave an unexpected look of warmth and comfort to the place. It was small enough for half a dozen men to sleep in; but at all events, we must try.

It was eight o'clock when we entered the cave; I lay uneasily for many hours, but at length I could endure it no longer; I spoke to Balmat the guide, who was near me, and found he too was very uncomfortable, and we agreed to make our escape. We got across the sleepers, somehow, knocked out the stones, and emerged. Oh! how grateful was that cool fresh air! how refreshing that draught at the mountain torrent! The stars were shining as I never saw them before in my life, like so many balls of fire in the black concave; the glaciers were sparkling in the soft light of the waning moon, now in her fourth quarter. It was just two o'clock, but not cold, and a bracing air blew briskly, yet pleasantly, from the north-west. I had been up before the sun, many a morning, on many a mountain height, and had seen, Í thought, almost every phase of Alpine night-scenery; but so beautiful a nocturnal view as this I never yet beheld; it spoke well for the promise of the day. Presently, some of the men came out, a fire was kindled, and tea and coffee made. I stripped, and had a bathe in the dashing torrent; it was icy-cold, but did me more good than the weary night in the hole. Balmat

and I were urgent with Lauener to start as early as possible, for we all expected a long day, and we wished to reach the snow while it was yet crisp; but he refused to start before half-past four, saying, that in an hour we should reach the glacier, and that the moon was not bright enough to light us across it. It was still dark when, at the hour appointed, we set off, and for some time we groped our way by the help of a lantern. During the first hour and a half, we mounted amongst a mass of débris, and amidst great boulders of rock, which lie below, or form