*! 





c /tf- 



FIRST WESTERN EXPEDITION 171 



over the more or less level moraine debris for two miles. 

 There we came on an interesting outcrop. It was very 

 unexpected to find a deep gully 100 feet below the general 

 surface with water still flowing in the creek at the bottom. 

 The walls were largely composed of ice hereabouts, and they 

 were melting merrily in the sun. 



This stream originated in the lake which we had seen a 

 day or two before, and we reached it via some beautiful 

 meanders. At its outlet was a cave twenty feet deep cut 

 in blue ice. 



Evans and I had a bet as to the length of the lake, in 

 which I recorded a win ; but "TafF" usually came off best 

 in these encounters ! 



February 28, 191 1. — We awoke to foggy and cold 

 weather, which was unsatisfactory, as one of our chief objects 

 was to climb a peak and get a good view of the hypothetical 

 Snow Valley (between Descent Pass and the Walcott Glacier). 

 Wright and I went back to Alph Lake some miles to the 

 west, while Evans and Debenham made another journey to 

 Heald Island and traversed it almost to its western end. 



I investigated the cave in the silts at the lake outlet. 

 The cave seemed to be due to a block of ice breaking away 

 at a silt band, for the roof was filled with stones, while the 

 mass above was clear ice. The interest lies in the fact that 

 these silts were obviously laid down in water, and the large 

 boulders arranged in uniform layers indicated that a strong 

 current had been operating. 



I left Wright at the lake, which he crossed later to 

 examine the "crystal cave" we had seen previously. Mean- 

 while I climbed up the steep delta of the stream leading to 

 the " Ward Hanger," and visited the latter valley. 



This gully was about a mile long with steep sides sloping 

 thirty degrees at first. I made for a black exposure which I 

 could see ahead where the gully cascaded down from the 

 hanging valley. This was a bed of decomposed basic lava, 

 about twelve feet thick and pointing to fairly late volcanic 

 action. 



Then I proceeded up the gully, scrambling over large 

 rounded boulders. I hurried to the top of the slope and 

 found that a very definite dam blocked the hanger, just as in 

 the adjacent valley. These dams were, I think, high-level 



