240 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 2 



to hear not a sound of any sort for many minutes. It appeared that 

 even though the shelf ice is here at least 700 feet thick it was under 

 such a great strain that even the weight of our outfit was enough to 

 disturb its equilibrium and start it cracking. This camp was really 

 well to the south of the very badly crevassed portion. At a later 

 time we found ourselves camped in the midst of crevasses and chasms 

 toward the northern edge of this interesting region. I took special 

 notice to see if our previous experience would be repeated. It was 

 not. We heard not a sound of cracking ice. Apparently the active 

 movement of the ice is from the south, as the shapes of the crevasses 

 would suggest, while the ice becomes stagnant toward the north. A 

 study of the aerial photographs taken over this region indicates a 

 movement from the southeast. These photographs further revealed 

 the fact that the whole broken area is but some 75 miles in length. 



Seventy miles north of the Queen Maud Mountains on our home- 

 ward way the performance described above was duplicated. There 

 was a constant cracking of the ice all about us when we turned in, 

 but never a sound when we woke in the morning. Here, however, 

 were no surface indications of the great strain that the ice is under; 

 the surface is practically level, and we found no crevasses within 15 

 miles on either side of this camp. 



Frequently in the course of the summer we found ourselves camped 

 among the crevasses near the mountains and even on the glaciers 

 themselves, but in no other places than the two noted above were we 

 thus noisily saluted. 



APPROACH TO THE MOUNTAINS 



From depot No. 4 at 81° 43' S. we now pioneered the way, estab- 

 lishing depots every 50 miles. We had planned to go directly south 

 to Axel Heiberg Glacier, but at depot No. 7 at 84° S. we changed our 

 course 15° to the west and thus proceeded directly to the foot of Liv 

 Glacier. From about 15 to 20 miles from the mountains the terrain 

 departed from the generally level habit it had presented. Gentle 

 rolls with a few crevasses began to appear. The rolls were so gentle 

 and so far apart that I did not realize the change in surface until 

 I looked behind to see dog teams disappearing in the hollows to 

 reappear again on the rolls. These first undulations were not more 

 than 10 to 20 feet high, and some must have been nearly a mile apart. 

 But as we neared the mountains the wrinkles became more pro- 

 nounced and closer together. Crevasses became more widespread, 

 more persistent, and longer. At no other place in the course of our 

 travels did we see a system of crevasses showing such an extensive 

 and regular develoj^ment as these below Liv Glacier. On the polar 

 flight Commander Byrd had dropped us a number of aerial photo- 



