136 SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION [FEBRUARY 
walked towards Knob Head. The direction of the moraines 
revealed the interesting fact that all the ice from the Plateau 
was moving into Dry Valley and not into the Lower Ferrar as 
was previously supposed. The Ferrar and Taylor Glaciers are 
‘apposed ’ glaciers linked like Siamese twins by the col at Knob 
Head. Originally they were quite distinct, and they will again 
be separated when the ice has dwindled a little farther. 
That evening we discussed literature. P.O. Evans disliked 
Dickens and Kipling, whom Debenham and I enjoy thoroughly. 
He preferred a well-known foreign writer whose name he very 
sensibly pronounced Dum-ass. Our sledging library was quite 
extensive, for each of us had devoted a pound of our personal 
allowance to books. I will give the catalogue, if only as a 
caution to later explorers. Debenham took my Browning and 
the ‘ Autocrat’; Evans had a William le Queux and the Red 
Magazine; Wright had two mathematical books, both in Ger- 
man; I took Debenham’s Tennyson and three small German 
books. The Red Magazine, the ‘ Autocrat,’ and Browning were 
most often read; Evans’ contribution being an easy winner. 
Somehow we didn’t hanker after German. 
On the roth we descended 1200 feet down a series of undu- 
lations and reached our depot at Cathedral Rocks. The skua 
gulls had found the carcase of the Emperor and our chance of 
a variation in the menu had departed with the gulls. 
On the 11th Wright and Debenham carried out a very im- 
portant operation to determine the movement of the Ferrar 
Glacier. ‘They fixed stakes right across the glacier which were 
aligned on two prominent peaks. Some six months later Captain 
Scott re-measured this line and found that very considerable 
movement, amounting to 30 feet, had taken place during the 
winter. 
Meanwhile P.O. Evans and I prospected for a route up the 
steep snow slope of Descent Pass. Evans had been with Armi- 
tage when he used this route in 1903. We found the conditions 
very different. Soon we were sinking nearly two feet at every 
step in soft snow, through which I knew it would be almost 
impossible to drag the sledges. The slope soon increased to 11°, 
so that we found some difficulty in progressing even unencum- 
bered. There I first made the acquaintance of the ‘ Barrier 
Shudder.’ Every now and then a shiver would shake the surface 
