146 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [MARCH 



It was very cold on this hill (which we called Terminus 

 Mountain) ; and after swinging the theodolite and taking sev- 

 eral photographs we hurried back to the tent down Ward 

 Valley. 



On March 2 we started our homeward trek; nothing could 

 be worse than our outward track up the middle of the glacier 

 though we were able to study the changes of the glacier ice 

 and so did not regret it. I therefore decided to hug the coast 

 on our return, though near the depot the ice was so full of silt 

 from the moraines that we had not seen any feasible route along 

 the coast thereabouts. 



For the next few days we followed the course of the sub- 

 glacial Alph River. Some four miles down stream from Termi- 

 nus Camp a rampart of ice pinnacles commenced, which re- 

 called the monoliths of Stonehenge. These walled off the rough 

 sea of the Koettlitz Glacier from the frozen surface of the 

 ' river.' This broad lane was here a quarter of a mile wide 

 and consisted of a level surface broken up by deep sunken 

 ' paths.' The more elevated areas were preferable for sledging, 

 for the paths occasionally let us through into water. The whole 

 structure was due to the drainage of water away from rivers and 

 lakelets whose surface had frozen. 



This splendid track which we called ' Alph Avenue ' 

 enabled us to proceed with unexpected ease, and each day we 

 halted and explored one of the numerous tributary valleys which 

 characterised the hinterland. 



Each valley was of the same type. A great bar of debris 

 a terminal moraine in fact some three hundred feet high 

 blocked the mouth of the tributary. Within this was a bare 

 rounded valley extending to the foot of Lister. Some five 

 miles from the coast was the snout of a tributary glacier which 

 had originally deposited the moraine, but now was shrunk back 

 to a mere shadow of its former self. 



All along our route were groups of seals, and numerous 

 skua gulls enlivened the surroundings. Coming back from one 

 of our detours I was much amused to see Wright crawling 

 about among the seals in his investigation of the ice while 

 thirty skuas were anxiously awaiting the demise of this obviously 

 crazy seal ! 



The summer was over now and we were getting fifty degrees 



