5i8 



MA TURE 



[March 28, 1901 



we were stopped by a crevasse more than thirty feet wide, 

 ■which we could not cross, and other crevasses appeared 

 beyond it, the whole glacier having a terraced structure. 

 ^ . . All Tuesday we were dragging our loads uselessly 

 towards a hill in the west, but in that direction also we 

 were stopped by numerous crevasses. . . . Again we 

 had to retrace our steps to the ice-plain to pass the 

 night, and there we left our camp for the two following 

 •days, seeing that it was impossible to reach any high 

 summit. . . . From the summit of the more distant 

 nunatak, Cook and I had a good view of the mer de glace 

 in which the large glacier terminated at the head of the 

 bay where we landed. Although the broken fragments 

 could not give rise to icebergs as they entered the 

 water, it seemed quite possible that in winter, when the 

 bay is frozen, enough' ice might accumulate to form one 

 or more bergs. In any case, it appeared certain to me 

 that the bottom of this 'great valley extended below the 

 level of the sea ; and I was also led to believe, judging 

 from the distances which separated the nunataks and the 

 angle of slope of the walls, that the same held good for 

 the valley in which we camped. We found some lichens 

 and mosses on the nunataks." 



On Sunday, February 6, the party got on board the 

 Belgica, and steered towards the east, in order to con- 

 tinue the survey of the coast of Graham Land. The air- 

 temperature was high all that day, with a maximum of 

 45' F. At night it rained, at times very heavily, and it 

 must have produced a great effect upon the snow-fields, a 

 much greater effect, probably, than a day of strong 

 sunshine. 



The party succeeded in landing on February 7 at the base 

 ■of a granitic cliff, near which, upon a little promontory, 

 -a metamorphic schist was discovered in contact with the 

 granite (XIII. on map. Fig. i). The direction of the 

 strata was north-west and south-east, and their dip 

 towards the north was about 45° ; a very friable schist 

 alternated with a dark quartzite, and dark green strata of 

 a highly metamorphosed rock. 



The fourteenth landing (XIV. on map, Fig. i) was on 

 a large island. M. Arctowski thus describes it : "I 

 «aw a channel which separates it in the south-west 

 from another land ; and to the north-west the sea- 

 horizon was unbroken — it was the Pacific Ocean. I 

 •saw this confirmation of my theories' with much 

 pleasure ; there was no doubt that we were on the west 

 coast of the continental land symmetrically placed with 

 regard to the Southern Andes. There is no passage to 

 the east, and the Biscoe Islands form a parallel chain 

 belonging to the mountain system of Graham Land. . . . 

 We remained some time on the strip of bare rock which 

 was exposed between the field of neve and the sea. It 

 was the same black granitoid rock traversed by thick 

 veins and narrow threads of quartz ; and there was a 

 great variety of erratic blocks, including specimens of 

 basalt, breccia, several blocks of conglomerate, and 

 some fragments of quartzite. A cave was found in the 

 large-grained porous ice-wall, along the uncovered bed 

 of which a little stream flowed, the first glacier stream I 

 had seen. It came from the direction of a nunatak, and 

 consequently could not have pursued its course from a 

 long distance under the ice ; in its bed there were rolled 

 pebbles of eruptive rocks." 



On Wednesday, February 9, at 7.30 a.m., the ^fteenth 

 landing was made (XV. on map, Fig. i). The whole 

 coast appeared like one great roche moutonnce entirely 

 free from snow, everywhere smoothly polished and 

 scored with sharp grooves, often very deep, running in 

 all directions and crossing each other. The larger were 

 vacant, but others were filled with thin leaves of rock, 

 and some with compact grey veins giving the rock a 

 schistose appearance. The surface of the granite was 

 strewn with splinters split off by the effects of radiation 



1 Hult. Soc. Cdol. France, 1895, p. 590 



NO. 1639, VOL. 63] 



usually from one-third to two-thirds of an iiich thick, 

 and about a foot in diameter. There were no erratic 

 blocks. The rocks were bare up to a height of about 

 150 feet, but from this level snow uniformly covered the 

 island and gave rise to a trickle of water, forming cas- 

 cades, under which an abundant vegetation of mosses 

 and algce had accumulated. A few tufts of moss were 

 found here and there among the stones. The sun 

 shone strongly, and the bare rock grew quite warm. 

 At 8 a.m. on the Belgica, when the air temperature 

 was 41^ F., the black-bulb thermometer in the sun 

 read 87°"8, hence the splintering of the surface 

 of the rocks could easily be understood. At 10.30 the 

 Belgica passed the cape at the south end of the moun- 

 tainous island, and the recording thermometer fell, while 

 the hygrometer rose sharply as the influence of the ocean 

 made itself felt ; and in the distance great icebergs could 

 be seen in the open Pacific. At 1 1 o'clock the sixteenth 

 landing was made on one of a group of twelve small low 

 islands (XVI. on map. Fig. i). Lecointe landed for the 

 noon observation of the sun, making use, as before, 

 of an artificial horizon ; Argtowski, Racovitza, Cook and 

 Danco accompanied him. The whole islet was covered 

 with moist snow almost to the water's edge ; a remark- 

 able difference in the height of the snow-Hne being 

 observable in the short distance separating the fifteenth 

 and sixteenth landings. All the islets of the neighbour- 

 hood had the same appearance, like great whale-backs 

 rising from the sea. The polished rock extended to just 

 below the surface of the water, and there were also 

 several glaciated rocks scarcely emergent. The whole 

 group seems to form a plateau which has been profoundly 

 glaciated, and of which only the higher portions now 

 appear ; but this plateau has nothing, in M. Argtowski's 

 opinion, in common with the continental shelf, the whole 

 of the district presenting clear evidence of being a sub- 

 merged region. From another point of view, these 

 islands are by ho means to be considered as the stamps 

 of mountains worn down by marine erosion ; they afford 

 evidence of a great extension of glaciers in some bygone 

 period. The whole of Belgica Strait had probably at one 

 time been filled by a great glacier which flowed to the 

 Pacific. The cutting off of the summits of these islands 

 may be its work. 



At noon on February 10 the eighteenth landing was 

 made, almost opposite the seventeenth, on the other 

 side of the large channel (XVIII. on map. Fig. i). It was 

 at the base of a pyramidal mountain of red rock, very 

 different in appearance from the surrounding scenery. 

 A great band of red granite seemed to traverse the 

 region from north-north-west to south-south-east. The 

 interesting feature of this landing was the discovery of 

 a moraine, at least 70 feet in height, which was set against 

 the mountain-side along part of the beach in the direc- 

 tion of the channel. The rock itself was highly glaciated 

 to just below the level of the water. Here we must 

 once again give the author's own words : " The command- 

 ant showed himself very obliging, but with a little good- 

 will we could have landed in many other places and 

 collected much more geological material than we did. 

 For this eighteenth landing he conducted me himself, 

 but for ten minutes only. A few strokes of the oars 

 brought us to the beach, amid cries of " Hurry up, 

 Argtovvski ! ' " I gave a hammer to Tellefsen, with orders 

 to chip here and there down by the shore, while I 

 hurriedly climbed the moraine, picking up specimens as 

 I ran, took the direction with my compass, glanced to 

 the left and right, and hurried down again full speed 

 to get a look at the rock in situ ; meanwhile Cook had 

 taken a photograph of the place from the ship— and 

 that is the way geological surveys had to be carried 

 out in the Antarctic." 



At ten a.m. on February 11 the twentieth and last 

 landing was made on the Pacific slope of the Needles, 



