IN WINTER QUARTERS WITH CAPTAIN SCOTT 291 



the warm palm of one's hand usually restored circulation. As 

 long as one's heat energy was abundant there was no risk ; 

 but when vitality was low, through fatigue and hunger, frost- 

 bite was certain in any cold extremity. 



As we walked over the Erebus Glacier we noted numerous 

 circular dark patches in the ice. These exhibited maze-like 

 patterns (arabesques), and marked where stones had sunk 

 through the ice. " There were no stones visible on the surface, 

 and no source of supply, so that either these were very ancient, 

 or else they were due to the effect of the sun on stones deep 

 buried in the glacier ice. The Land's End Ridge was a mile 

 long and only a hundred yards wide. It was most pre- 

 cariously placed between the glacier and the deep sea, and was 

 perched on a line of cliffs which were just uncovered by the 

 retreat of the glacier. 



Monoliths of kenyte lava and ash (tuff) were scattered 

 along the moraine. Great debris-cones, capped by huge un- 

 weathered blocks of kenyte, rose to thirty or forty feet high. 

 The Land's End cliffs abutted on the crevassed piedmont 

 glacier to the south, and from their 1 50-feet elevation we 

 could see the curving crevasses crossing the glacier, and could 

 determine that the " ice-caves " were but these crevasses seen 

 in vertical section on the ice front. 



To the south extended a fine view of Turk's Head, and 

 the long promontory to the Hut Point. We returned 

 towards our hut, and attempted to reach the sea-ice from the 

 moraine. In the dim twilight we judged that there was a 

 twenty-foot gully between us and what looked like an iceberg. 

 When we dropped into it, it was only four feet deep ! So 

 deceptive is a snow surface in the absence of light and shade. 



The next day was cold again ( — 35°), and Gran and I 

 climbed Inaccessible Island. I carried a theodolite, and fixed 

 it on the top (521 feet). It was awfully cold work. I had 

 to remove my fur gloves, and my fingers "went " very soon, 

 and standing still made my toes lose feeling also. By the end 

 of an hour I could do no more, and was so numb that I 

 could not put the theodolite back properly in its case. My 

 fingers and toes ached badly all the way home, but had recovered 

 on arrival. 



I went out to the rubbish pile and commandeered enough 

 material for a book-binding kit. I bound up some glacial 



