1902] GLIMPSES OF LAND r 3 5 



descended in heavily crevassed falls. Even in the uncertain 

 light the contrast of light and shadow made it evident that it 

 rose to an altitude of many hundred feet, and consequently 

 that land must lie beneath it ; but, peer as we would into the 

 misty distance, amongst the steep and rugged icy slopes, we 

 could see no sign of bare land, without which our discovery 

 must remain so barren to ourselves. 



It was as the bell sounded for our evening meal, and all 

 save the officer of the watch were preparing to descend, that 

 over the summit of the ice island for which we were making, 

 appeared two or three little black patches, which at first we 

 took for detached cloud. We gazed idly enough at them till 

 someone remarked that he did not believe they were clouds ; 

 then all glasses were levelled ; assertions and contradictions 

 were numerous, until the small black patches gradually assumed 

 more and more definite shape, and all agreed that at last we 

 were looking at real live rock, the actual substance of our 

 newly discovered land. 



Dinner had to wait until on rounding the ice islands we 

 could approach these fascinating patches as near as the fast ice 

 would allow ; but this still separated us from them by a great 

 distance, and in the misty, overcast weather we could add but 

 little to our knowledge, as the following extracts from my diary 

 will show : 



' . . . At a height of about 2,000 feet several rock patches 

 could be seen. The snow slope from which they emerged 

 seemed to be otherwise gradual and unbroken. One could 

 not say to what height it rose beyond, but the rock alone was 

 sufficient to prove that the tall ice ridges which we saw yester- 

 day and to-day cover solid land of considerable altitude. . . . 

 These particular patches appeared in the centre of a long 

 ridge, the outline of which it was very difficult to distinguish 

 for want of adequate contrast. The wind has changed to the 

 east, so that we may hope for clearer weather.' 



It is curious to reflect now on the steps which led us to the 

 discovery of King Edward's Land, and the chain of evidence 

 which came to us before the actual land itself was seen : at 



