i 3 2 WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



February i, 191 1. — To our surprise — after five days' pull- 

 ing over heavy snow in the Ferrar Glacier — we found no snow 

 in the adjoining valley! We made across the valley a little to 

 reach the medial moraine, and to get away from the disturbed 

 ice at the corner. At lunch we camped in a huge hole along- 

 side a giant boulder of granite. Here alone we found enough 

 snow to secure the tent. Water was obtained from a mass of 

 slushy ice on the sunny side of an adjacent boulder. 



Many points of interest appeared round us. All over the 

 clear ice were circular patches of darker ice, varying in size 

 from an inch to two feet. Embedded in the darker ice were 

 the arabesque patterns described previously. These dark 

 patches marked where stones had gradually sunk through the 

 glacier, as the sun's rays — rendered operative by radiation 

 from their dark surfaces — melted the ice around them. As 

 a consequence, only the most massive blocks remained above 

 the ice hereabouts, and the medial moraine — in place of being 

 a continuous ridge of heaped debris — consisted of a block 

 here, another twenty feet off", a third somewhat further, and 

 so on along a line down the valley. 



On the slopes of the north, under Obelisk Mountain, were 

 two interesting glaciers. We named them from their shape 

 " Catspaw " and " Stocking " Glaciers. They spread over a 

 low range of hills shaped somewhat like a broad terrace, and 

 from my sketch it seems possible to prove considerable retro- 

 gression on the part of the " Catspaw." In 1903 the " paw " 

 was furnished with relics of a well-defined ' " mantle " in the 

 form of three " claws " prolonging the glacier some hundreds 

 offset. There was no trace of these in 191 1. The irregular 

 outline of this glacier suggests that it originally spread out 

 and perhaps joined with the Stocking (to the east) and other 

 isolated curtain glaciers. Hence the absence of any trace of 

 a valley below these glaciers. They merely " spill " over the 

 broad terrace and hang there supinely, quite unconnected with 

 the main glacier below. This absence of marked erosion is, 

 to my mind, a very important point, and similar features 

 constantly occur. 



The gullies in the Solitary Rocks afforded an interesting 

 piece of evidence as to the relation of outcrop to weathering. 

 One of the trials of physiography is to decide how much of 

 the outline of a valley must be set down to the varying 



