But the slopes
rapidly steepened and at length fell away in sheer precipices,
compelling a return to the ice. Fortunately, the day had been warm
enough to loosen the ice-crystals so as to admit of hollows being dug in
the rotten portions of the blocks, thus enabling me to pick my way with
far less difficulty than I had anticipated. Continuing down over the
snout, and along the left lateral moraine, was only a confident saunter,
showing that the ascent of the mountain by way of this glacier is easy,
provided one is armed with an ax to cut steps here and there.
The lower end of the glacier was beautifully waved and barred by the
outcropping edges of the bedded ice-layers which represent the annual
snowfalls, and to some extent the irregularities of structure caused by
the weathering of the walls of crevasses, and by separate snowfalls
which have been followed by rain, hail, thawing and freezing, etc. Small
rills were gliding and swirling over the melting surface with a smooth,
oily appearance, in channels of pure ice--their quick, compliant
movements contrasting most impressively with the rigid, invisible flow
of the glacier itself, on whose back they all were riding.
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