176 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Nov. 



Between this ice-wall and the mountain side lay a deep 

 trench, showing the smooth glassy surface of frozen thaw-water. 

 The mountain side itself, except for one place lower down 

 where there was an outcrop of red granite, was thickly strewn 

 with boulders of every kind of rock which the region produced, 

 whilst here and there could be seen enormous perched blocks 

 ranging up to three or four hundred tons in weight. 



All this vast quantity of debris had evidently been carried 

 by ice, and it was now that we first realised to what vastly 

 greater limits our glacier had once extended, for these thickly 

 strewn boulders covered the mountain side to a height of three 

 thousand feet above our heads, where a horizontal line signi- 

 fied their limit and the extent of the glacier at its maximum. 



' November i. — It was overcast and dull this morning, but 

 the wind had fallen light and we decided to push on ; although 

 the air was comparatively still about us, close ahead the "Vale 

 of Winds " was sending forth its snow-laden gusts as merrily as 

 ever. Before we came to this unattractive area we passed two 

 more carcases of Weddell seals ; the last was at the greatest 

 altitude we have yet found one, nearly 5,000 feet above the 

 sea ; it grows more than ever wonderful how these creatures 

 can have got so far from the sea.' We never satisfactorily 

 explained this matter. The seal seems often to crawl to the 

 shore or the ice to die, possibly from its instinctive dread of its 

 marine enemies ; but unless we had actually found these 

 remains, it would have been past believing that a dying seal 

 could have transported itself over fifty miles of rough steep 

 glacier surface. 



' We got safely past the " Vale of Winds " with only one or 

 two frost-bites, and a few miles beyond found our depot with- 

 out much difficulty. At first we thought that everything was 

 intact, but a closer examination showed us that the lid of the 

 instrument box had been forced open and that some of the 

 contents were missing. Evidently there has been a violent 

 gale since we were here before. When we came to count 

 up the missing articles, we found that Skelton had lost his 

 goggles and that one or two other trifles had disappeared } but 



