174 WITE SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



The summer was over now and we were getting fifty 

 degrees of frost in the nights. The weather was gloomy, 

 the sun rarely appearing till it had sunk below the level of 

 the pall of stratus. 



We had an eventful lunch just before reaching our depot. 

 We pitched the tent and fastened the door to keep out 

 the wind. I was sitting next the door with my precious 

 lumps of sugar on the floorcloth when I noticed that water 

 was creeping into the tent. In a few seconds it was several 

 inches deep. We bolted our raisins, pocketed the lumps of 

 butter and sugar and rushed out with the sleeping-bags. 

 There was a small lake all round us, rapidly rising round 

 sledge and tent. The water was rushing out of a crack one 

 hundred yards below us, probably driven back by a high tide. 

 We had quite a pilgrimage to get our sledge packed again, 

 having to walk round the newly formed bay. 



The avenue petered out here, after furnishing us with a 

 magnificent highway for twenty miles. We had some pretty 

 rough work for the next mile or so, but reached our depot 

 safely on the evening of the 5th. 



Having now described many of the glacial valleys it is 

 interesting to see if we can discover how their peculiar topo- 

 graphies have arisen. One great problem confronting 

 geologists is to explain how the giant " steps " and " basins " 

 of the Swiss glacier valleys were produced. In Antarctica the 

 gradual change in the character of the valleys as we proceed 

 northward from Mount Discovery has led me to put forward 

 a theory which I think holds good for these huge glaciers in 

 latitude 78 S., and may help to explain those in 45 N. 



In old Greek manuscripts one can sometimes discern traces 

 of an older script half obliterated by the later writings — this 

 MS. is called a palimpsest. Just so in Antarctica — I think that 

 beneath the largest outlet glaciers, such as the Ferrar and 

 Taylor Glaciers, we can perceive the relics of an earlier cwm 

 erosion. 



Near Heald Island is the gigantic scarp of the Royal 

 Society Range 10,000 feet high. Cutting into its face are 

 simple cwm glaciers such as the Walcott glacier. This stage 

 is shown in section I. As the snow accumulates (and 

 turns into ice in situ) we get a gnawing process, in the 

 moat, etc., at the margin of the glacier, which gradually extends 



