THE WESTERN JOURNEYS* 
By T. Grirriru Taytor, B.A., B.Sc., B.E., F:G:S: 
CHAPTER I 
KOETTLITZ, FERRAR, AND TAYLOR GLACIERS 
TueE following chapters describe the doings of six members of 
the Expedition during a detailed exploration of the ‘ Western 
Mountains’ in South Victoria Land. A few words as to the 
scene of our operations and the personnel of the parties will 
serve as an introduction to the narrative of the sledge journeys. 
As you stand on Cape Evans with your back to the steam 
cloud of Erebus you see across MacMurdo Sound a glorious 
range of mountains running due north and south and rising to 
13,000 feet in the south-west. These are the Western Moun- 
tains. Their southern limit is the extinct volcanic cone of 
Discovery, and far to the north one can follow the same range 
of snow-clad peaks until it merges with the grey line of the 
horizon. Beyond this grey line was Granite Harbour (76° 50’), 
and that marked the northern limit of our survey; while the 
Koettlitz Glacier (in 78° 20’), which hid the lower slopes of 
Discovery, was the ‘ farthest south’ reached in our two sledging 
trips. 
On clear days we could see every little cup-shaped valley 
which roughened the mighty scarp of Lister, so sharply that it 
seemed impossible that they were seventy miles away. Due west 
was the valley of the Lower Ferrar Glacier, while the long gleam- 
ing snow slope at its mouth was the Butter Point Piedmont—the 
starting place for all Western exploration, where depots have 
been made even since the butter was left there by the 1902 
expedition. 
Hidden behind the ranges was the Great Ice Plateau. From 
this height of 7000 feet descended the great rivers of ice—the 
* See Folding Map, p. 290: and The Birdseye Views, pp. 420, 422, 425. 
