i9l IN THE MOAT 135 



We made good speed up the glacier and camped again at 

 the west end of the Kukri Hills. After supper Wright and I 

 went over to the great ' glacier moat ' which separates the ice 

 from the granite cliffs. I was very anxious to see whether there 

 was any evidence of erosion by the glacier on the cliffs at the 

 foot of the moat. 



We carried ice axes and 120 feet of Alpine rope. At the 

 edge of the glacier there was a sharp curve formed by a snow 

 cornice. Carefully peering over the edge, we could see there 

 was a frozen stream about 200 feet below. 



Wright lowered me over the edge which I found was 

 formed of soft snow and projected, like the eaves of a house, 

 about ten feet. Some thirty feet down was a sort of platform 

 and then the steep edge of the great glacier. 



Wright paid out the rope and I let myself down to its end, 

 about 80 feet above the moat. I started cutting steps down the 

 remainder, but my ski boots were so worn out I got no grip, 

 and I reached the moat purely by the force of gravity. My 

 instruments were luckily not damaged and I found the depth 

 to be 207 feet, while the moat was 100 feet wide at the bottom. 

 Debris screened the cliff foot and I could see no planation by 

 the ice. 



I managed to cut steps up to the rope and reached the plat- 

 form under the cornice. Wright hauled away manfully, with 

 the natural but unexpected result that the rope cut through the 

 snow cornice and his efforts resulted in my head being enveloped 

 in snow, and there I stopped. I cried ' Lower away,' reached the 

 platform again, and crawled along under the cornice, but could 

 see no way out of the cul-de-sac. Gloomily I returned to the rope 

 and descended to the moat, arriving in exactly the same manner, 

 save that the skin vanished from the knuckles of my left hand 

 this time! However, after tramping some distance north we 

 found a place where the cornice had broken off, and here I was 

 hauled up, my ice axe finding a tender spot in my leg as I reached 

 ' glacier ' firma. 



Our rest was disturbed all night by a sound like continuous 

 volley-firing. This was due to the cooling temperatures causing 

 the glacier to contract and split. 



In the forenoon Wright and P.O. Evans explored the ice 

 falls and moraines near Solitary Rocks while Debenham and I 



