i 9 ii] CHRISTMAS DAY 175 



opinion favoured frost-bite, rheumatism, or blood-poisoning. 

 Gran remembered aspirin as good for rheumatism so the pa- 

 tient swallowed two. Then he said he meant salicylate, so I took 

 two of them ! and then he cheered us by telling us how a former 

 invalid with whom he had had medical dealings died on his 

 hands! 



However, on the i6th we sledged to the head of the harbour 

 to examine the numerous capes and bays and to try and find a 

 path up to the great inland plateau. First of all we made for a 

 low dark cape from which the Mackay Glacier had receded 

 slightly. From our hut it looked just like a black hand stretched 

 out from a snowy cuff so we named it Cuff Cape. We found it 

 a very interesting spot with moraines, rock-striae, perched blocks, 

 and other evidences of past ice action in great profusion. 



The next few days we explored and mapped a headland which 

 we called the Flat Iron from its resemblance to the sky-scraper 

 of that name. On its southern face was a deep bowl-shaped bay 

 with a little hanging glacier at the back, and possessing a dry 

 gravelly beach. Here in the Devil's Punch Bowl beneath the 

 Devil's Thumb we stayed till December 23. 



It was a grand collecting ground. Almost every variety of 

 granite, diorite and gabbro occurred on the Flat Iron. Deben- 

 ham found a great ' dyke ' of marble included in the granites, 

 and containing large specimens of natrolite, pyroxene, and am- 

 phibolite. The New Glacier had only just ceased to cascade 

 over the Devil's Ridge into the Punch Bowl, and the condition 

 of this narrow granite ridge exposed after its submergence by a 

 huge glacier was of extreme interest to the physiographer. 



There were several pretty little tarns on the slopes, and 

 Gran celebrated Midsummer Day by a dip, in which I would 

 willingly have accompanied him but for my disabled hand. 



Towards the end of this trip I began to be able to read my 

 own left-hand writing. Unfortunately no one else has succeeded 

 in doing so, and I find that the meaning of many (no doubt) most 

 valuable notes is now lost to me also ! 



By Christmas Day we were back at Cape Geology ready to 

 tackle the hinterland. We celebrated the day in a manner worthy 

 of the occasion. Forde rigged up all our sledge-flags; Gran's, 

 which was given to him by Queen Maud of Norway, Debenham's 

 and mine with Australian and Cambridge emblems, while Forde, 



