We traveled upwards of forty miles, and had descended about three thousand feet before we ventured to halt. The wind was much less severe at this point than at the higher level, and the temperature had risen twelve degrees. Although we reposed without risk, yet our canvas shelter was very cold; and, notwithstanding the reduced force of the gale, there was some difficulty in keeping the tent from being blown away. We reached Port Foulke the next evening, after a toilsome march, without having suffered any serious accident. [Sidenote: JOURNEYING BY MOONLIGHT.] [Sidenote: AN IMPRESSIVE SCENE.] The latter part of the journey was made wholly by moonlight. The air was found to be quite calm when we reached the base of the glacier; and the journey down its lower face, and through the gorge, and over the valley, and across Alida Lake and the Fiord, was made in the presence of a scene which was very impressive. Sheets of drifting snow swept over the white-crested hills like insubstantial spirits flitting wildly through the night. These told that the gale yet howled above; but in our lowly shelter the air was still as a cave in the midst of winds. No cloud obscured the broad archway of the skies. The gentle stars, robed in the drapery of night, rejoiced to behold their forms in the smooth mirror of the lake. The glacier threw back the chilly moonbeams. The shadows of the dark cliffs stole into the flood of light which filled the valley. The white Fiord, dotted with islands, wound between the rugged capes, and its ice-clad waters spread out into the bay and then merged with the broad sea. In the dim distance loomed up the lofty snow-clad mountains of the west coast. Upon the sea floated a heavy bank of mist, which, slowly changing when moved by the wind, disclosed within its dark bosom the ghostly form of an iceberg; and a feeble auroral light fringed this sombre cloak of the waves. Angry flashes darted from behind this mass of impenetrable blackness, and, rushing fiercely among the constellations, seemed like fiery arrows shot up by evil spirits of another world. [Illustration] CHAPTER XI. IMPORTANT RESULTS OF THE RECENT JOURNEY.--THE GLACIER SYSTEM OF GREENLAND.--GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE SUBJECT.--ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN FROM THE ALPINE GLACIERS.--GLACIER MOVEMENT.--OUTLINE OF THE GREENLAND _MER DE GLACE_. The results of the journey recorded in the last chapter gave me great satisfaction. They furnished an important addition to the observations which I had made in former years; and I was glad to have an opportunity to form a more clear conception of the glacier system of Greenland. The journey possesses the greater value, that it was the first successful attempt which had been made to penetrate into the interior over the _mer de glace_.