In some of the recesses of the column, the ice assumed a pale blue colour; but as a rule it was white and very hard, not so regularly prismatic as the ice described in former glacieres, but palpably crystalline, showing a structure not unlike granite, with a bold grain, and with a large predominance of the glittering element.

But the westernmost mass was the grandest and most beautiful of all.

It consisted of two lofty heads, like weeping willows in Carrara marble, with three or four others less lofty, resembling a family group of lions' heads in a subdued attitude of grief, richly decked with icy manes.

Similar heads seemed to grow out here and there from the solid sides of the huge mass.

The girth was 76-1/2 feet, measured about 2 feet from the floor.