3 io WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



veins, and here the Owner got a strong vein of copper pyrites. 

 The adjacent limestone (or marble) they thought was quartz. 

 This has a blackish mineral in it, perhaps copper glance. 

 Then they returned to Marble Point and then in a beeline 

 to the Hut. They were caught two days in a blizzard and 

 had an awful time getting up the tent. Sunny Jim was 

 nearly frostbitten holding up the poles. 



" The Owner didn't think we could retreat over the shore, 

 for it consisted of ice slopes with crevasses. But there are 

 so many bergs there that he was sure that an ice margin would 

 form there quickly ; and he thought we could count on 

 reaching Hut Point by April I . . . " (As will be seen later, 

 the sea-ice broke up quite abnormally ; and we should not 

 have got round till next spring if we had not retreated in 

 February over the ice slopes. Atkinson tried this journey in 

 April, just as Scott suggested, and found it impossible ! 

 which is but one more illustration of the irrationality of 

 Antarctic conditions.) 



Now that the sun was back again, it was very enjoyable to 

 tramp round our headquarters and " snap " pictures with the 

 camera. I realized more than ever that a geologist is always 

 in a position to enjoy nature. In civilized regions a botanist 

 may run him close, but down south the former would have 

 a poor time, whereas there are always rocks or ice, even in 

 Antarctica. The snow ridges were most beautiful objects, 

 all lying on the northern (lee) side of various projections. 

 For instance, a great promontory of snow jutted out over the 

 sea-ice from the Northern Glacieret, and clearly marked the 

 origin of the latter, as consolidated snowdrift. A little further 

 the sea-ice at low tide, evidently bumped on to a great 

 boulder, and the ice was cracked and bent into a low dome, 

 exactly as a granite boss is supposed by geologists to crack 

 the earth's crust. Beyond this the snow cornice due to 

 blizzard drift was busy bridging the tide-crack, and this 

 accretion from one side, gradually extending to the other, 

 led to a theory of crevasse-bridges, which explains the greater 

 thickness in the centre of such bridges. 



The sculpturing of the kenyte boulders was most re- 

 markable. Just behind the hut was a quaint boulder, carved 

 by wind and frost into something resembling a Galapagos 

 turtle ! This we called the Antarcticosaurus. On the Ramp 



