i9l DIFFICULT SKETCHING 177 



It was bounded by the long red ridge of granite ahead of us 

 which we called the Redcliff Nunakol. On the south were the 

 crevasses of the new glacier, while on the north were the ice- 

 falls of the Mackay, like a suddenly frozen storm-tossed sea. 

 Gran said this would be called Skauk in Scandinavia, so we 

 adopted that name. 



The surface was covered with deep snow and there were 

 many east-west depressions in this, into which we fell occasion- 

 ally. I am not sure if they were crevasses, they may have been 

 subglacial streams. We heard here the eerie ' Barrier Shudder,' 

 as the surface fell in around us, but familiarity made us disregard 

 this. 



There was a wonderful series of peaks to the south, rising 

 about 5000 feet high and separated by the snow-filled bowls 

 which are technically called cwms. Mount England was a very 

 prominent object to the south-east, confronting us with a 

 giant wall of granite 4000 feet high. This was seamed by 

 couloirs and gullies, down which small snow avalanches formed 

 white tongues leading to the crevassed slopes of the New Glacier 

 below. 



About four o'clock we deviated to the south so as to camp on 

 the Redcliff Nunakol. We descended a little the last mile and 

 finally crossed a large frozen lake and reached a gravelly point 

 on the nunakol. Here we pitched a comfortable camp about 30 

 feet above the glacier. Alongside was a little waterfall flowing 

 from a marshy flat on which some moss was growing. 



We spent December 29 surveying this island in the glacier. 

 It was about 1000 feet above the glacier, but its rounded con- 

 tours showed that it had been overwhelmed by the ice flood, 

 fairly recently in geological time. About 5 miles farther west 

 was Gondola Mountain (Mount Suess). This was a true nuna- 

 tak or ' lonely peak '; for it towered 3000 feet above the glacier 

 and its jagged summit had not been planed by the Mackay 

 Glacier at its period of maximum flood. 



Forde carried the theodolite up for me, and I managed to 

 sketch the panorama. It extended over sixteen pages of my 

 notebook, and under the circumstances was a work of art; for 

 there was a cold wind blowing, and I hadn't been able to draw 

 for weeks. Many of the boulders had pot holes eroded in them, 

 I think by wind and frost action. I boldly attempted to draw 



VOL. II 12 



