THE GRANITE HARBOUR EXPEDITION 377 



We camped on the ice-foot at Cuff Cape and scrambled 

 up to see the glacier behind. Like all the land hereabouts 

 the rock was covered with a layer of jumbled blocks of granite 

 mixed up with gravel and clay. The ice cliff was fifty feet 

 high, and almost free from silt or rock. Hence the debris on 

 the cape surely marks the condition of the land prior to the 

 last advance of the glaciers. It is not rock crumbled in situ, 

 for I am sure that would be more in the form of a gravel — 

 moreover, erratics were common. 



There was, of course, some moraine material, and a few 

 perched blocks especially along the north shore. In the bay 

 near the Tongue the latter had broken the bay ice into square 

 cakes, evidently by the pressure of the glacier ; and the 

 movement of the Tongue along the stagnant ice of Cuff Cape 

 had piled a rampart of ice on top of the latter. 



The hot sun acting on the ebony front of my camera had 

 actually split it ! Luckily I discovered it in time, and no 

 damage was done to my photographs. Gran was very pleased 

 at finding an insect on this cape, and while we were examining 

 this wild animal, he also discovered " gold." This latter, 

 however, was only golden mica, though it quite resembled the 

 precious metal. 



On the T8th we moved across to the next cape. This 

 stood out boldly with nearly vertical crags a thousand feet high 

 bounding it on two sides. It closely resembled in shape the 

 sky-scraper called the " Flat Iron," and as it also had a flat 

 top we gave it that name. We camped on the south-east 

 side at the foot of a chimney which led up to a pretty little 

 tarn. The summit was 1200 feet above the sea and was 

 covered with a wonderful variety of rocks. 



Looking up the glacier to the west we could see a plateau 

 of dead ice. The moving glacier split on Mount Suess, and 

 the greater part of the ice entered the sea as the Mackay 

 Tongue. A small amount flowed down just south of the 

 Flat Iron forming the "New Glacier" (see map, p. 376). In 

 my opinion there is a tendency for greater erosion at the edge 

 of the ice, for here the sapping action in the " lateral moat " 

 is very active. In the centre of a glacier the only erosion is 

 that due to glacier planation, and as I have explained, very 

 little of this is taking place in Antarctica at present. 



There was a marked descent from the top of the Flat 



