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184 TRAVELS
three Englifh miles, thirty of which you travel on the ice without.
_ touching on land. ‘This paffage over the frozen fea is, doubtlefs,
the moft fingular and ftriking {pe@tacle that a traveller from the
South can behold. I laid my account with having a journey
more dull and unvaried than furprifing or dangerous. I expected
to travel forty-three miles without fight of land over a vaft and
uniform plain, and that every fucceffive mile would be in exact
unifon and monotonous correfpondence with thofe I had already
travelled; but my aftonifhment was greatly increafed in propor-
tion as we advanced from our ftarting-poft. The fea, at firft
fmooth and even, became more and more rugged and unequal.
It affumed, as we proceeded, an undulating appearance, refem-
bling the waves by which it had been agitated. At length we
met with mafies of ice heaped one upon the other, and fome of
them feeming as if they were fufpended in the air, while others
were raifed in the form of pyramids. On the whole they ex-
hibited a picture of the wildeft and moft favage confufion, that
furprifed the eye by the novelty of its appearance. It was an
immenfe aivted of icy ruins, prefented to view under every pof-
fible form, and embellifhed by fuperb ftalactites of a blue green
colour.
Amidft this chaos, it was not without difficulty and trouble that
our horfes and fledges were able to find and purfue their way. It
was neceflary to make frequent windings, and fometimes to return
ina contrary direction, following that of a frozen wave, in order to
avoid a colleétion of icy mountains that lay before us. In {pite
of
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