THE GRANITE HARBOUR EXPEDITION 381 



place. In short, true glacier erosion (planation) was absent, 

 and yet all round were specimens of cwms in all stages of 

 their evolution. Here a gully, there a couloir somewhat 

 deeper, on the Kar Cliffs a couloir cut into a " half funnel " 

 (P- 374) '•> at tne "Spillover" near by, a small bowl at the 

 back of the eroded notch, and along the mountain ridge 

 (named later after Gonville and Caius College), a series of 

 giant cwms which, in my opinion, originated in some small 

 gully such as that I had just climbed. At the foot of each 

 of these deep couloirs was a delta or debris fan. 



We climbed up the steep face of the New Glacier just 

 where it joined the talus of the mountain slope. Higher up 

 was a deep lateral gully which had been dammed by debris, 

 and contained a lake about a quarter of a mile long. This 

 was bounded by steep granite cliffs on the south, which 

 showed no sign of grooving by the glacier, but was breaking 

 off in " shells " owing to frost action. 



We could see up the New Glacier, which was badly 

 crevassed in many places. I came round to the opinion of 

 Debenham and Gran, that it would be wiser to portage all our 

 gear up the 1000-feet cliffs of the Flat Iron, and so gain the 

 quiet area behind the latter. We returned to Cape Geology, 

 and packed a fortnight's provisions and gear for our journey 

 up the Mackay Glacier. 



I caught many of the insects I had discovered on arriving 

 at Cape Geology. Indeed, later Debenham found them under 

 most of the stones, clustering among the whitish roots or 

 hyphae of the moss. They would be frozen stiff in a thin 

 film of ice until one turned the stone into the sun. Then 

 the ice would melt, and they would move sluggishly about 

 until the sun left them, when their damp habitation froze 

 again ! I cannot imagine a finer example of hibernation, for it 

 looked as if they pursued an active life only when a beneficent 

 explorer let in a little sunlight on them ! Debenham detected 

 a little red species which was much more nimble than the 

 millimetre-long blue ones, and I had much trouble in catch- 

 ing six of them ; but the others were more easily managed. 

 I smeared a piece of paper with seccotine, and then, taking 

 a small brush from the medical outfit, I brushed them by 

 hundreds on to the paper. " Seccotine sticks everything," 

 and the aptera were no exception. In a few moments they 



