SURVEY OF THE CRATER 241 



from the peak and take a rope party to examine it. So far all 

 the rocks we had passed had been the typical kenyte so familiar 

 to us at Cape Royds, but we found ourselves now camped on 

 basalt, an allied but distinct rock which was not seen by the Pro- 

 fessor's party, who had kept close in to the main crater and had 

 not attempted any side issues such as our present divergence. 

 After lunch I took Gran, Abbott, and Dickason, leaving Deben- 

 ham with Hooper to help him to continue his survey, and made 

 straight for the peak, which we reached without crossing any bad 

 country, though crevasses were numerous above our route. 



We climbed the small triangular hill from bottom to top, 

 making its height 300 feet, and from the top we obtained a good 

 view and a photograph of the old crater and of a strongly 

 seracced glacier which loomed up as a bad obstacle in our ex- 

 amination of the district. 



The peak proved more interesting geologically than was 

 expected, and we took back a good crop of specimens and 

 photographs. 



From here our route to the old crater itself proved steady, 

 steep (for sledges), and uninteresting, and we camped on the 

 gravel of a small nunatak on the lower side of the crater glacier 

 at 5 P.M. on the 8th (8000 feet). 



From this point Debenham was able to initiate the survey 

 of the crater, and the next day all six of us carried one tent and 

 equipment for three men a mile or two up the side of the glacier 

 and established a camp in a gully nearly 9000 feet above sea 

 level. After making this camp I took a rope party of four across 

 and collected from the lower fang of the crater, while Deben- 

 ham took Abbott and continued his plane table survey. What 

 I saw from the crater side of the glacier decided me to make the 

 final climb from a point about half a mile beyond the Gully 

 Camp, and so I sent Gran with two of the men back for a supply 

 of food from a depot we had laid three or four miles back and 

 almost on the professor's route. 



After lunch I returned with the other two, and we struck the 

 single tent at our lower crater camp, collected all spare gear and 

 depoted it and the extra food, and on the return of the other 

 three we pulled the sledge with its skeleton equipment as far as 

 the Gully Camp, where we spent the night. 



On the morning of the loth we again pulled out, and by 



VOL. II 1 6 



