THE GRANITE HARBOUR EXPEDITION 373 



On this expedition we had more of the trouble with boots 

 which we had experienced early in the year. My " iron- 

 clads " had lasted splendidly. The steel spikes and bars had 

 protected the leather completely, and only on the 14th did the 

 first bar break off. For future work of this description I 

 should certainly use the heaviest and largest Alpine boots, and 



Ironclad Boors 

 for AnrdLfctfc 



Geologisrs, , 5 ..o.. . 



that is the most valuable advice as to equipment that 1 can 

 offer to future Antarctic geologists. 



I had been busy planning how to measure the velocity of 

 the Mackay Tongue. This flowed eastward between us and 

 the Kar Plateau, so that by sighting from our granite cape to 

 a fixed point on the Kar Plateau cliffs, I could fix very 

 accurately a datum line. It only remained to plant a mark 

 on the moving glacier somewhere on this line, and our inves- 

 tigation would be well started. Unfortunately we had 

 nothing for a mark. I thought of placing a seal carcase on 

 the glacier ; for stones would sink into the ice in a very short 

 time. Finally I used the butt end of the flag-pole from the 

 Discovery Bluff. Here at last we found the blubber-soot 

 useful, for I used it as a paint to increase the visibility of a 

 swab of sealskin which I bound on the bamboo stake. Gran 

 and I marched across to the Tongue carrying the stake and 

 the theodolite. I never remember any hotter walk than that 

 two miles. The sun simply made the perspiration pour off us ! 

 However, one could always sit down and have glace au naturel 

 to cool one. Personally, I never felt any ill result from 

 eating snow in the Antarctic, and all our party quenched their 

 thirst in this way. 



