154 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Feb. 



active volcano. The western coastline, after leaving the ice- 

 foot protecting our new harbour, runs back into a deep bay, 

 the southern horn of which touches the slopes of the cone 

 mountain ; ranges of comparatively low foothills stand behind 

 the inner part of the bay, and five or six islets in the bay form 

 a strong contrast to the snow behind. Another low range of 

 hills flanks the cone mountain on the left, and separated from 

 these by a long and barely perceptible snow bank is yet another 

 low range. This snow bank is due south, and over it in the 

 dim distance the faint outline of very distant hills can be seen. 

 But from the left extremity of the last range to the long cape 

 which bounds the slopes of Erebus, nothing could be seen ; 

 so with renewed hope of finding a strait we skirted the pack in 

 this direction. 



1 During the forenoon and afternoon we passed through 

 extensive sheets of young ice two or three inches in thickness, 

 and all day a school of grampus (Orca gladiator, killer whale) 

 were playing about the ship, often coming within a few feet 

 of the side and scattering the young ice as they rose to breathe. 

 Early in the afternoon we came suddenly on a low foot of 

 fast glacier' ice, which appears to be the extremity of a long 

 tongue running for many miles out of the bay to the right 

 of the cone mountain. Its formation is most peculiar. The 

 surface is covered with numerous spiky pinnacles and ridges 

 many feet in height ; I can think of no less fanciful resem- 

 blance than to compare them to tombstones in a cemetery. 



' A boat was got out to examine it, and we found that the 

 surface of the ice between the pinnacles was covered with 

 a thick deposit of volcanic sand, amongst which were evidences 

 of numerous water-courses now dried up ; evidently the heat 

 absorbed by the sand has melted these channels, leaving the 

 pinnacles between. It was by no means easy to clamber over 

 this confusion of ice and rubble, and it would be quite out 

 of the question to drag a sledge through it ; it is to be hoped, 

 therefore, that we do not meet many such obstructions on our 

 journeys. A few hundred yards from the edge, the winding 

 of the water-channels had produced some very beautiful, as 



