SHORE-ICE FRINGES. 
61 
The Shore-ice. 
The shore of South Victoria Land is always fringed with ice, which ends sharply 
seawards in a perpendicular wall (Plate II). The wall varies in height from 
3 to 300 feet, and two 
types of fringe may be 
distinguished. 
(l) Fringe due wholly 
to the frozen spray. Such 
fringing ice never attains 
a height of more than 
six feet. The fringe of 
O 
ice around the land in 
Granite Harbour is perhaps 
most characteristic, and 
forms a typical ice-foot.* 
It remained firmly frozen 
to the land all the year 
round. It is not materially added to by snow-precipitation, and dissolves rather 
than increases during the few summer-days when the sea washes against it. As the 
maximum rise and fall of the tide is less than three feet, a low ice-foot, as contrasted 
with the high ice-foots of 
Arctic regions, is to be ex- 
pected. The breadth of the 
fringe varies from 6 to per- 
haps 60 feet, and the surface, 
which is usually fairly flat, 
often contains pools of water 
during summer. The chief 
action of the fringe is conserv- 
ative.! It protects the land 
from the action of eroding 
breakers and floating ice, and 
more especially protects the 
rock-cliff by cementing to- 
gether its talus. 
(2) Fringe of glacier-ice 
adherent to the land (Figs. 35, 36). The ice is free from salt, shows the well-known 
blue bands, and has a well-marked granular structure. Such fringes vary much in 
Fig. 36. — Shore-ice wrapping the Land near the foot of 
Castle Rock. 
Fig. 35. — The Ice-foot at Hut Point. 
* Drygalski, ‘ Gronlaud-Expedition,’ 1897, Bd. i, p. 285. 
f Bonney, Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc., 1902, vol. lviii, p. 699. 
