THE INLAND ICE 307 



one place only does the inland ice pour any of its volume into 

 the sea, whilst the mountains themselves form an effective 

 screen to the conditions which exist behind them. I have only 

 one note that throws light on these ; as we journeyed down the 

 coast we looked back over the ice-river in latitude 75° and saw 

 its surface rise sharply to a ridge between the mountains. 

 I wrote : ' Beyond this the surface still seemed to rise, and bare 

 patches of rock could be seen at a greater altitude, but it was 

 impossible to estimate the exact distance or height of these.' 



Turning now to our journey up the Ferrar Glacier, it will 

 be remembered that the mountains rose on each side of us as 

 we approached th-e interior, and that when we reached the 

 interior plateau at a height of 8,900 feet we observed nunataks 

 to the north standing above our own level. From these 

 observations I think there can be little doubt that the land 

 rises behind the coastal mountains of the Prince Albert Range, 

 and that the interior ice-cap nearly maintains the altitude 

 which it has to the southward. 



To the south of the Ferrar Glacier there are a number of 

 detached mountain ranges of great altitude that flank the 

 coast. In the distance at which we first saw them they bore 

 the appearance of islands, but closer approach narrowed the 

 glaciers which lay between them, and revealed an extensive 

 mountain region beyond, behind which must lie an ice-cap of 

 great altitude and extent. 



Coming now to our journey over the ice-cap, it will be 

 remembered that we travelled to the westward over a plain 

 which did not vary in altitude more than sixty or seventy feet 

 for 200 miles; but as one's view on such a plain was very 

 limited, it would be impossible to state definitely that the 

 conditions were the same for many miles north or south of 

 our course. We did not reach the inland plateau until we 

 were fully seventy miles from the coast, and it is therefore 

 extremely improbable that the full height of the ice-cap could 

 be seen anywhere from the sea or from the Barrier surface. 



From the facts before us, therefore, we may say with 

 certainty that the ice-cap is of very great extent, and that in 



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