146 SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION [Marcu 
It was very cold on this hill (which we called Terminus 
Mountain); and after swinging the theodolite and taking sey- 
eral photographs we hurried back to the tent down Ward 
Valley. 
On March 2 we started our homeward trek; nothing could 
be worse than our outward track up the middle of the glacier 
—though we were able to study the changes of the glacier ice 
and so did not regret it. I therefore decided to hug the coast 
on our return, though near the depot the ice was so full of silt 
from the moraines that we had not seen any feasible route along 
the coast thereabouts. 
For the next few days we followed the course of the sub- 
glacial Alph River. Some four miles down stream from Termi- 
nus Camp a rampart of ice pinnacles commenced, which re- 
called the monoliths of Stonehenge. These walled off the rough 
sea of the Koettlitz Glacier from the frozen surface of the 
‘river.’ This broad lane was here a quarter of a mile wide 
and consisted of a level surface broken up by deep sunken 
‘paths.’ The more elevated areas were preferable for sledging, 
for the paths occasionally let us through into water. The whole 
structure was due to the drainage of water away from rivers and 
lakelets whose surface had frozen. 
This splendid track—which we called ‘ Alph Avenue ’— 
enabled us to proceed with unexpected ease, and each day we 
halted and explored one of the numerous tributary valleys which 
characterised the hinterland. 
Each valley was of the same type. A great bar of débris 
—a terminal moraine in fact—some three hundred feet high 
blocked the mouth of the tributary. Within this was a bare 
rounded valley extending to the foot of Lister. Some five 
miles from the coast was the snout of a tributary glacier which 
had originally deposited the moraine, but now was shrunk back 
to a mere shadow of its former self. 
All along our route were groups of seals, and numerous 
skua gulls enlivened the surroundings. Coming back from one 
of our détours I was much amused to see Wright crawling 
about among the seals in his investigation of the ice—while 
thirty skuas were anxiously awaiting the demise of this obviously ~ 
crazy seal! 
The summer was over now and we were getting fifty degrees 
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