THE TERRA NOVA GOES SOUTH 



25 



supposed to be analogous to those obtaining in Victoria 

 Land. 



We carried a pair of Norwegian ski as a present from the 

 Expedition to the guide at the Hermitage below Mount 

 Cook ; and we were shod in Norwegian ski- boots, whose 

 chief characteristics are a square high toe — to fit the ski-iron 

 — and a large size — to contain comfortably three pairs of 

 socks ! We were also provided with some special surveying 

 instruments, aneroids 

 made of aluminium 

 and only half the 

 ordinary weight, and 

 a queer type of hand 



z.zi+y 



The c us pa. He. peak's o£ 

 M^CooK^^e Ma.UVfior'n 



ltt.7S« 



tei'/p,.- 





compass, the shape 

 of a gypsy's kettle. 

 The needle was sur- 

 rounded with a heavy 

 oil and the case care- 

 fully sealed in, so 

 that the oscillation 

 should be " dead- 

 beat," and not waste 

 valuable time in 

 coming to rest. 



A hundred-mile 

 motor ride bridges 

 the gap between the 

 railway at Fairlie and 

 the Government ac- 

 commodation house 

 "the Hermitage" be- 

 neath Mount Cook. 

 As we rapidly tra- 

 versed the foothills — 

 bare but for coarse tussocks of grass — the Alps came nearer 

 and were more visible. The snowline was very strikingly 

 marked on the mountains. To the north Mount Cook 

 (12,349 feet) showed almost 7000 feet of snow, and thence 

 as the mountains decreased in height less and less projected 

 above the snowline, until on those 5000 feet high only the 

 peaks retained any snow. The Swiss Alps are in the same 



®t 



N.B. — In both these peaks and also in the 

 Antarctic " Matterhorn " (in Taylor's 

 Valley, q.v.) the "faceted" slopes are due 

 to the eating away of the sides by ciirm 

 (cirque) erosion. 



