1902] LADY NEWNES BAY 109 



saw rising in a clear sky the magnificent sharp peaks of Mounts 

 Monteagle and Herschel, and the high snow- covered ranges 

 between. From the summits many vast glaciers sweep down 

 with majestic curves to the sea, and on these we looked with a 

 keen eye, calculating the chances of reaching the interior over 

 surfaces which looked so smooth at this distance. But the 

 most remarkable physical feature of this neighbourhood is the 

 fact that the whole of this bay, called by Mr. Borchgrevink 

 1 Lady Newnes Bay,' is filled with a vast mass of what we 

 subsequently came to call ' barrier ' ice, a sheet of such thick- 

 ness that its towering ice-cliffs stand in many places 150 feet 

 above the water. On the origin and nature of these extra- 

 ordinary ice-formations I shall have more to say in a future 

 chapter. At this time, although few of us had much knowledge 

 of ice-conditions in other parts of the world, we felt that we were 

 gazing on a phenomenon unlike anything reported elsewhere. 



On our passage across the strait we had a very remarkable 

 instance of the influence of volcanic rock on the compass. 

 Two successive bearings taken of a distant cape showed us 

 that the card had swung 8°. At this time we were more than 

 a mile from the cliffs of the island, and on sounding found 

 forty fathoms of water beneath us. The directive force of the 

 compass was of course extremely small, but such a large 

 deflection is astonishing. 



In the evening we entered a long inlet between Cape 

 Jones and the barrier-ice, and later turned out of this into 

 a smaller inlet in the barrier-ice itself. After pushing through 

 heavy detached floes we secured to some sea-ice which, 

 although cracked in all directions, had not yet broken away. 

 We were now in a remarkably well-sheltered spot; on each 

 side we had high ice-cliffs, whilst across the mouth of the inlet 

 lay the high land of Cape Jones. On the sea-ice of the inlet, 

 which ran for some distance ahead of the ship, more than a 

 hundred seals lay basking in the sun, and elsewhere a small 

 colony of Emperor penguins in process of moulting exhibited the 

 most dishevelled appearance, and evidently hated to be seen with 

 their usually smooth glossy plumage in such an untidy state. 



