124 



PLATE LXIII. THE GREAT ICE BARRIER. 



FIG. 1 (Map A). From a photograph by L. C. BERNACCHI (Be. 56, ^-plate), Jan. 24, 

 1902. 



FIG. 2. From a photograph by Mr FORD (Fo. 37, - plate), Jan. 1902. 



FIG. 3 (Map A). From a photograph by E. H. SHACKLETON (Sh. 50, ^-plate), 

 Jan. 27, 1902. 



FIG. 4. From a photograph by Mr FORD (Fo. 39, ^-plate), Jan. 1902. 



These four pictures represent various portions of the sea-cliff or ice-face of 

 Ross's Great Ice Barrier. As an almost uninterrupted ice-cliff, this seaward edge 

 extends for some 500 miles, between Ross Island on the W. and King Edward's Land 

 on the E. At one point dropping to 10 feet in height, it rises at another to 240 feet, 

 and maintains an average of some 200 feet in all. Yet nowhere between 170 E. 

 and 160 W. can the surface of the ice-plain to the S. be seen to rise. It forms one 

 vast sheet of floating ice, technically known as a " piedmont-afloat," the disappearing 

 remnant of an ice-sheet incredibly more vast and deep than that which now 

 partially covers the South Polar area. 



Ferrar, Nat. Hist. Rep., vol. i., p. 67; also, Scott, Voyage of the 'Discovery,' 

 vol. i., pp. 1 70 et seq. 



