VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT 247 



to the other. Only on the most easterly spur was the 

 rock just visible. 



On the south and south-west nothing was to be seen 

 but the usual undulating Barrier surface. Biscoe Bay, 

 as Captain Scott has named it, was for the moment 

 a gathering-place for numerous icebergs; one or two 

 of these seemed to be aground. The inmost corner of 

 the bay was covered with sea-ice. On its eastern side 

 the Barrier edge could be seen to continue northward, 

 as marked in Captain Scott's chart; but no indication 

 of bare land was visible in that quarter. 



Having built a snow beacon, 6 feet high, on the 

 summit, we put on our ski again and went down the 

 eastern slope of the hill at a whizzing pace. On this 

 side there was an approach to the level on the north of 

 the precipice, and we availed ourselves of it. Seen from 

 below the mountain crest looked quite grand, with a 

 perpendicular drop of about 1,000 feet. The cliff was 

 covered with ice up to a height of about 100 feet, and 

 this circumstance threatened to be a serious obstacle 

 to our obtaining specimens of the rocks. But in one 

 place a nunatak about 250 feet high stood out in front 

 of the precipice, and the ascent of this offered no great 

 difficulty. 



A wall of rock of very ordinary appearance is not 

 usually reckoned among things capable of attracting the 

 attention of the human eye to any marked extent; 

 nevertheless, we three stood and gazed at it, as though 



