These frozen masses, during the
process of thawing, had in some parts been converted into pinnacles
or columns, which, as they were high and close together, made it
difficult for the cargo mules to pass. (15/4. This structure in
frozen snow was long since observed by Scoresby in the icebergs
near Spitzbergen, and, lately, with more care, by Colonel Jackson
"Journal of Geographical Society" volume 5 page 12, on the Neva.
Mr. Lyell "Principles" volume 4 page 360, has compared the
fissures, by which the columnar structure seems to be determined,
to the joints that traverse nearly all rocks, but which are best
seen in the non-stratified masses. I may observe that in the case
of the frozen snow the columnar structure must be owing to a
"metamorphic" action, and not to a process during DEPOSITION.) On
one of these columns of ice a frozen horse was sticking as on a
pedestal, but with its hind legs straight up in the air. The
animal, I suppose, must have fallen with its head downward into a
hole, when the snow was continuous, and afterwards the surrounding
parts must have been removed by the thaw.
When nearly on the crest of the Portillo, we were enveloped in a
falling cloud of minute frozen spicula.
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