130 SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION [JANUARY 
reached the top of the lower Ferrar and found ourselves on a © 
small ice plateau about 3200 feet above sea level. We now ~ 
marched along the grandest geological section it has ever been © 
my good fortune to see. The cliff to the north, 3300 feet high, © 
was capped by yellowish sandstone. Beneath this were two 
wonderful horizontal sheets of dark lava which had intruded 
through the granite base so that the rocks looked like a gigantic 
sandwich composed of alternating yellow, black and red layers. — 
The lower slopes of the red granite were covered by the old 
lateral moraine, a layer of dark débris left by the Ferrar Glacier 
when it almost filled the valley we were following. 
We pushed on till 9 p.M., descending slightly as we proceeded 
to the north, and camped on the glacier filling the upper end of ~ 
the Dry Valley. The exploration of this glacier—which Scott ~ 
had rapidly traversed in 1903—-was the work before us during ~ 
the next fortnight. Captain Scott has honoured me by giving it 
the name of Taylor Glacier. 
I kept too near to the Kukri Hills on descending into the 
Taylor Glacier and we struck an extremely steep slippery surface 
consisting of clear ice cut into rounded hollows a foot across. 
This characteristic surface—like giant thumb marks in a piece 
of putty—was full of small crevasses, and here the sledge re- 
peatedly ‘took charge.’ We rolled about all over the place, and 
someone remarked that we had all the appearance of being drunk — 
and none of the pleasure of it! . 
To our surprise, after five days’ pulling over heavy snow in © 
the Ferrar Glacier, we found no snow in the parallel Taylor — 
Valley, only about 10 miles farther north. After lunching among 
the scattered blocks of the medial moraine we descended about a 
thousand feet, the sledge doing its own pulling. Debenham and 
I went on ahead with slack traces, while Evans and Wright en- 
livened the valley with what they were pleased to call ‘ cheerful 
song’! A strong keen wind was blowing up the valley, but the © 
most remarkable feature of this region prevented it from becom- ~ 
ing obnoxious. There was no drift-snow! , 
Imagine a valley four miles wide, 3000 feet deep, and 25 : 
miles long without a patch of snow—and this in the Antarctic in © 
latitude 7714° S. By this time we could see the ‘ snout’ of the ~ 
glacier just below us. The slope became too steep for the sledge — 
and at six o’clock we halted to try and find a site for our camp. 
