248 THE EASTERN SLEDGE JOURNEY 



we had something of extraordinary beauty and interest 

 before us. The explanation is very simple, if we re- 

 member the old saying about the charm of variety. 

 A sailor, who for months has seen nothing but sea and 

 sky, will lose himself in contemplation of a little islet, 

 be it never so barren and desolate. To us, who for 

 nearly a year had been staring our eyes out in a dazzhng 

 white infinity of snow and ice, it was indeed an experi- 

 ence to see once more a bit of the earth's crust. That 

 this fragment was as poor and bare as it could be was 

 not taken into consideration at the moment. 



The mere sight of the naked rock was, however, only 

 an anticipatory pleasure. A more substantial one was 

 the feeling of again being able to move on ground that 

 afforded a sure and trustworthy foothold. It is possible 

 that we behaved rather like children on first reaching 

 bare land. One of us, in any case, found immense 

 enjoyment in rolling one big block after another down 

 the steep slopes of the nunatak. At any rate, the 

 sport had the interest of novelty. 



This little peak was built up of very heterogeneous 

 materials. As the practical result of our visit, we 

 brought away a fairly abundant collection of specimens 

 of all the rocks to be found there. Not being a 

 specialist, I cannot undertake any classification of the 

 specimens. It will be the task of geologists to deal 

 with them, and to obtain if possible some information 

 as to the structure of the country. I will only mention 



