8 WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



some muscle. One morning we set off from Cambridge at 5 a.m. 

 with some boiled eggs and chocolate and walked to London, 

 where we reached St. Paul's, Islington, at 5 p.m. It was a 

 non-stop effort, and Wright came through " smiling," but my 

 feet were so sore that I could hardly stand next day. My 

 chief recollection is one of loathing for hard-boiled eggs, and 

 of the relief with which I dropped three-quarters of our 

 provisions in a secluded corner of King's Cross ! 



During the Easter vacation 1 planned a trip to the Enga- 

 dine and Como to study glacial erosion in some detail. I had 

 already spent some months in this part of the Alps, and 

 wished to gain fresh data on many questions. A college 

 friend accompanied me. Professor Bonney was kind enough 

 to give us advice as to the best routes during March, for my 

 previous trips had been in summer. He also discussed the 

 questions of valley erosion at some length, and I was glad to 

 hear that they would form the basis for his presidential 

 address to the British Association at Sheffield. He was 

 strongly opposed to W. M. Davis' views on the subject, 

 holding that water and not ice had cut out most of the Alpine 

 valleys. 1 had learnt my glaciology from the eminent 

 American while in the Swiss Alps, and was naturally Davisian 

 in consequence. However, Antarctica led me to place more 

 stress on frost action as an eroding agent, so that my position 

 is now between the two schools ! 



We had an interesting and useful trip lasting for six 

 weeks. This is hardly the place to discuss the results of 

 this journey, though in some sense it belongs to the Expe- 

 dition, for Captain Scott paid the bulk of my expenses. I 

 visited for a second time the wonderful valleys north of 

 Bellinzona, the Val Mesocco to the north-east and the Val 

 Ticino to the north-west. At Mesocco and Faido are two 

 of the most striking bars or " riegel " across the Alpine 

 troughs, and later in Antarctica I was to find a third even 

 more striking example. Thus, about twenty miles south of 

 Saint Gothard is the basin of Piotta, a trough with vertical 

 walls two thousand feet high and a flat valley floor. This 

 is analogous to the Antarctic valley containing Lake Bonney 

 (77° 3°' S.). Then at Fiesso this basin is bounded by a 

 great bar or riegel, through which a narrow defile passes at 

 one side ; so also at the Nussbaum Riegel in Antarctica. 



