THE BAY OF WHALES 49 



Pole would probably have been solved long before 

 December, 1911. With his keen sight and sound judg- 

 ment, it would not have taken him long to determine 

 that the inner part of the bay does not consist of floating 

 barrier, but that the Barrier there rests upon a good, 

 solid foundation, probably in the form of small islands, 

 skerries, or shoals, and from this point he and his able 

 companions would have disposed of the South Polar 

 question once for all. But circumstances willed it 

 otherwise, and the veil was only lifted, not torn away. 



I had devoted special study to this peculiar formation 

 in the Barrier, and had arrived at the conclusion that 

 the inlet that exists to-day in the Ross Barrier under the 

 name of the Bay of Whales is nothing else than the self- 

 same bight that was observed by Sir James Clark Ross- 

 no doubt with great changes of outline, but still the same. 

 For seventy years, then, this formation with the excep- 

 tion of the pieces that had broken away had persisted 

 in the same place. I therefore concluded that it could 

 be no accidental formation. What, once, in the dawn 

 of time, arrested the mighty stream of ice at this spot 

 and formed a lasting bay in its edge, which with few 

 exceptions runs in an almost straight line, was not 

 merely a passing whim of the fearful force that came 

 crashing on, but something even stronger than that 

 something that was firmer than the hard ice namely, 

 the solid land. Here in this spot, then, the Barrier 

 piled itself up and formed the bay we now call the 



VOL. I. 4 



