ANTARCTIC LAND OF VICTORIA—ZIMMERMANN. 841 
is, whether it comes down from a back country of mountains. 
The difference is too great between these immense sheets of ice, 
prolonged for hundreds of kilometers and the thin fringes of ice 
at the most from 2 to 3 kilometers broad which constitute ordi- 
nary piedmont glaciers. This difference lies not only in the dimen- 
sions, but in the mode of conduct. The rapid movement of glacial 
masses, which we have vainly looked for in the continental glaciers, 
is indeed realized in the Ross Barrier, the measurements of Lieu- 
tenant Barne, taken at the approach of Minna Bluff, having furnished 
a figure of advancement amounting to 608 yards (555 meters) in thir- 
teen and one-half months, or about 1.35 meters as a mean per day. 
This is, however, a very slow rate compared with that of the great 
glaciers of Greenland, the Karajak and the Jakobshavn, the maximum 
progress of which is not less than 18 to 20 meters per day. But one 
could hardly expect a movement of such rapidity from a sheet of ice 
which presents to the sea a front of more than 800 kilometers, and 
which appears due to the confluence and the union of several large 
glaciers in a wide and shallow bay. Supposing the movement of 
the original glaciers to be very rapid, it must be continued at a 
notably slower rate in this enormous outspread sheet which is pushed 
outward after the manner of a delta. Admitting, with Mr. Ferrar, 
that the Ross Barrier does originate through the union of several 
fjords of ice, one will at once see the entire difference between a 
glacier of this type and the ordinary “ piedmont.” 
Ross Barrier has been studied with care by the Discovery. <A rig- 
orous following out of its edge was undertaken, a matter made easy 
by steam navigation, and which Ross found impossible of accomplish- 
ment, the imperfection of navigation by sail alone compelling him to 
estimate many of the heights from a distance. The Barrier is, in 
fact, neither as high nor as regular in outline as described by Ross. 
Captain Scott describes it as 21 meters in height at the beginning and 
for some distance. On January 23, 1902, a height of 62 meters was 
registered, successive measurements giving on the 24th, 72, 24, and 
finally 15 meters; one on the 25th, 9 meters, and later 24 meters, when 
it fell abruptly to 4.50 meters. On January 28 measurements of 17 
to 45 meters were recorded, and on the 29th as low as 1.20 to 1.50 
meters. It is, therefore, not a uniform wall of ice, and the height of 
45 meters attributed to it is simply a mean. The great differences in 
altitude are productive of equally striking difference in appearance. 
At times this change indicated that one portion has been longer ex- 
posed to atmospheric agencies than another. Much of the time, how- 
ever, the changes are so gradual as to escape notice when viewed from 
a distance, the higher portion seeming simply nearer. In Balloon 
Bay the height was but 3 meters, but on the other hand where it 
