BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION—SHACKLETON. Saf 
wintered in 1902 and 1903. The ice showed no signs of breaking 
out, and on February 3 we proceeded to land stores and erect a hut 
on Cape Royds, the spot selected under pressure of circumstances, 
for the winter quarters of the expedition. On February 22 the 
Nimrod went north again, leaving the shore party at Cape Royds. 
The ship was to return the following summer. 
The first work of importance undertaken after the winter quarters 
had been established was the ascent of Mount Erebus. This active 
voleano, which has an altitude of over 13,000 feet, was of particular 
interest from the geological and meteorological standpoint, and 
though the ascent was likely to prove difficult, it seemed that the 
attempt should be made. A party of six set out from the winter 
quarters on March 5, and on the morning of March 10 five of the 
men stood on the edge of the active crater, the sixth having been left 
at the last camp with frost-bitten feet. The scientific results of the 
journey were both interesting and important. The party found that 
the height of the active crater is 13,350 feet above sea level, the figures 
being calculated from aneroid levels and hypsometer readings, in 
conjunction with simultaneous readings of the barometer at the 
wint+r quarters. It was noted that the moraines left at the period 
of greater glaciation ascend the western slopes of Mount Erebus to 
a height of fully 1,000 feet above sea level. As the adjacent portion 
of McMurdo Sound is at least 1,800 feet deep, the ice sheet at its 
maximum development must have had a thickness of not less than 
2,800 feet. Two distinctive features of the geological structure of 
Mount Erebus were the ice fumaroles, and the vast quantities of large 
and perfect felspar crystals. Unique ice mounds have been formed 
in the cup of the second crater, from which rises the present active 
cone, by the condensation of vapor round the orifices of fumaroles. 
Only under conditions of extremely low temperature could such 
structures come into existence. The felspar crystals, found in enor- 
mous quantities mixed with snow and fragments of pumice in the 
second crater, were from 2 to 3 inches in length, and very many were 
perfect in form. The fluid lava which had surrounded them had 
been blown away by the force of the explosions which had ejected 
them from the crater. The valuable meteorological observations 
made can not be stated within the scope of this article. 
The most important event of the winter months was the discovery 
by the biologist of microscopical life in the frozen lakes of the Cape 
toyds district. Investigations showed that alge grew at the bottom 
of the lakes, which are frozen during the greater part of the year, and 
in some cases thaw completely only in exceptionally warm seasons. 
The microscope showed that rotifers, water bears, and other forms of 
minute animal life existed on the weed. A shaft was sunk through 
15 feet of ice to the bottom of a lake which did not thaw during the 
