146 WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



granite base, certainly gives it a resemblance to its forerunner 

 in the Alps. We estimated it to be 9000 feet high. Luckily 

 we took careful angles which we worked out later in the hut. 

 To our chagrin all observations resulted in a poor 5000 ! 

 Such is the effect of lack of trees or any standard of com- 

 parison in Antarctic scenery. Continuing west we found that 

 the penguins seemed to have the same queer habits as the 

 seals, for we found a skeleton some fourteen miles from 

 the sea. 



We reached Alcove Camp about 5 p.m. and saw that our 

 camp site was ruined by thaw water. We hunted around for 

 a new floor, and the only available one seemed to be a pile 

 of moraine rubble just like a heap of road metal ! This we 

 levelled off, and when the ice had melted away in the sun, we 

 pitched our tent upon this stony bed. Then we had a hot/ 

 meal, much appreciated after our days of cold food. 



We were up at 7.20, Greenwich time (really 6.20, local) 

 and shifted our gear from the heap of road-metal to the 

 surface of the glacier. We had a good breakfast, though I 

 noted that twelve lumps of sugar did not seem to sweeten 

 the cocoa. It was difficult to move the sledge, for the dark 

 straps had sunk two inches deep in the hard ice and there 

 frozen in again. We managed to get everything ready by 

 10 a.m., and moved up the glacier. It was very sunny, and 

 Evans wore a huge " Madeira " straw hat, quite a yard across 

 — a queer but useful article that his previous experience had 

 led him to add to his kit. 



We had lunch about six miles up the glacier in the medial 

 moraine. I took careful notes of the latter, which differed 

 conspicuously from those of temperate glaciers. It consisted 

 of huge blocks of granite with smaller pieces of dolerite and 

 sandstone. They were often 100 feet apart, so that this 

 moraine compared with Swiss examples was a very " tenuous 

 thread." Comparatively little material can be supplied to 

 these slow moving or stagnant glaciers, and all the small 

 stones have undoubtedly sunk into the ice long ago. 



The upper portion of the Kukri Hills hereabouts showed 

 by the fragments of the Beacon Sandstone torn off by the 

 intrusive eruptive rock dolerite that the latter was newer. 

 The relative ages of the other rocks could be deduced in the 

 same way. For instance, the dolerite sent " dykes " into the 



