i9"l DISCOVERY BLUFF 165 



perky at + 15 and evidently prepared to grow vigorously if 

 permitted. The Tongue was a mile long and exhibited the usual 

 regular waves in its profile. 



On the next day we continued west. The clear sheet of ice 

 we had seen ahead of us was now covered with snow and our 

 hopes of easy sledging were not fulfilled. At lunch time the 

 sun was so hot that the surface was not traversable. We halted 

 therefore and Gran and I walked south to a small bay. 



There was a wonderful granite cliff with overhanging glacier 

 streams connecting the upper ice with the lower. Probably not 

 long ago a continuous ice sheet covered this i5O-foot cliff, but 

 now only comparatively narrow ribbons of ice are left, though 

 these are quite continuous in spite of the steep fall. They were 

 however in an unstable position and we heard several avalanches 

 hence our name for it of Avalanche Bay. Just to the east 

 of these ' ice-ribbons ' was a rock outcrop which seemed to me 

 the first spot in the harbour whence the top of the piedmont ice 

 could be reached if the bay ice went out. 



After supper we pulled on towards the Discovery Bluff. 

 The surface improved somewhat and we started out for more 

 relay work. We could see Discovery Bluff quite close and 

 after half a mile I judged we were half-way and went back for 

 the second sledge. Then on again and it never seemed to get 

 any nearer. Instead of half a mile it was two miles. Bring- 

 ing up the second sledge was a weary grind. As Debenham said 

 when we arrived, ' We were too tired to think ! ' We got in 

 about midnight and pitched camp on the tide crack. There 

 was a young seal still in its woolly coat lamenting its mother's 

 absence with great persistence. ' Baa-aa ! ' it said like a cross 

 between a lamb and a very vigorous young bull. This resounded 

 from the granite cliff above us and occasionally the mother 

 re-echoed it from the tide crack, where she wisely kept. I 

 was glad to see eight seals here most of which I intended 

 to kill. Gran caught the young one by the tail, which in- 

 creased the bellows of anguish. It then bolted to the water, 

 in which it swam readily, and we turned in amid a chorus from 

 the seals. 



On the 3Oth we journeyed on round the steep face of the 

 Discovery Bluff and opened up a fine little bay with a regular 

 beach of granite boulders. Here was much lichen and lots of 



