396 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Oct. 



it, and its dark colour was only relieved by the briny ice- 

 flowers. 



• Apart from the danger of this ice being broken up again, 

 it was impossible to camp on it, as no snow could have been 

 obtained for cooking or for securing the tents ; the party were 

 obliged, therefore, to skirt the edge of older ice to the south, 

 and this added to the length of the journey. During this time 

 the open water was never far from them, and, besides 

 numerous seals and penguins, they constantly saw whales 

 (probably killer whales) spouting in the offing. On the night 

 of the 1 6th they camped on the slope of the foothills of the 

 mainland ; not far to the north of them was the New Harbour, 

 whilst immediately to the south was an immense pile of 

 morainic material which they have called the "Eskers." 

 This it is that looks like a small range of hills from the heights 

 above us and which we have often been puzzled to account 

 for.' 



I should add that this formation was really an old lateral 

 moraine, and, as we soon discovered, it was quite wrongfully 

 called the Eskers, a name properly given to deposits formed 

 by glacial streams ; but a name once given is a very hard 

 thing to change, and after this first journey no one could be 

 brought to refer to this formation otherwise than as the 

 Eskers, and I have no doubt this name crops up many times 

 in my journal in spite of my knowledge of the error. 



'On the 17th they hauled their sledges to a height of 

 500 feet up the snow-slope and pitched a camp there, with 

 the intention of making excursions from it. Since their start 

 from the ship the weather had been very changeable, and 

 they had experienced a great deal of wind with low tem- 

 peratures. On some days the wind had been so violent that 

 they had been forced to stop in their tents ; such a day was 

 the 1 8th, but on the 19th five of the party left the camp and 

 crossed the long snow-slope which bounds our view on the 

 south side of New Harbour. From this they could get a 

 good view of the valley beyond, and saw that it cut deeply 

 jntp the mountain range and contained, a huge glacier. 



