. Arctic explorations: the second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55. mean height of the table-land till it reachesthe bed of the Great Glacier may be stated in roundnumbers at nine hundred feet, its tallest summit nearthe water at thirteen hundred, and the rise of thebackground above the general level at six hundredmore.^*^^ The face of this stupendous ice-mass, as itdefined the coast, was everywhere an abrupt andthreatening precipice, only broken by clefts and deepravines, giving breadth and interest to its wild ex-pression. The most picturesque portion of the
. Arctic explorations: the second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55. mean height of the table-land till it reachesthe bed of the Great Glacier may be stated in roundnumbers at nine hundred feet, its tallest summit nearthe water at thirteen hundred, and the rise of thebackground above the general level at six hundredmore.^*^^ The face of this stupendous ice-mass, as itdefined the coast, was everywhere an abrupt andthreatening precipice, only broken by clefts and deepravines, giving breadth and interest to its wild ex-pression. The most picturesque portion of the North Green-land coast is to be found after leaving Cape George Rus-sell and approaching Dallas Bay. The red sandstonescontrast most favorably with the blank whiteness, asso-ciating the cold tints of the dreary Arctic landscape THREE BROTHER TURRETS. 223 with the warm coloring of more southern hinds. Theseasons have acted on the different layers of the cliffso as to give them the appearance of jointed masonry,and the narrow line of greenstone at the top capsthem with well-simulated )fpB;*iiiiif THHEE BROTHER TURRETS. One of these interesting freaks of nature becameknown to us as the Three Brother Turrets. The sloping rubbish at the foot of the coast-wall ledup, like an artificial causeway, to a gorge that wasstreaming at noonday with the southern sun; whileeverywhere else the rock stood out in the blackestshadow. Just at the edge of this bright opening rose 224 Tennysons monument. the dreamy semblance of a castle, flanked with tripletowers, completely isolated and defined. These werethe Three Brother Turrets. I was still more struck with another of the samesort, in the immediate neighborhood of my halting-ground beyond Sunny Gorge, to the north of latitude79°. A single cliff of greenstone, marked by the slatylimestone that once encased it, rears itself from acrumbled base of sandstones, like the boldly-chiselledrampart of an ancient city. At its northern extremi
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