218 



PLATE OX. THE BUTTRESS ROCKS IN THE FAR SOUTH. 



From a photograph by E. H. SHACKLETON (Sh. 190, -plate), Dec. 31, 1902; look- 

 ing W. from the Barrier in S. lat. 82 10'. (Map A.) 



The movement chasm by which our attempt to reach the land was foiled is 

 just visible on the right of the picture, its irregularities being all below the level of 

 the Barrier surface. It was less than a mile in breadth, and from 40 to 50 feet 

 in depth, with perpendicular ice- walls on the landward side, and at the bottom was 

 a chaos of broken ice-blocks, snow-drifts, and pools of ice. After struggling three 

 hours for a crossing, we had to give up the attempt. 



The knife-edge sculpturing of these outstanding rocky buttresses is sufficient 

 to indicate a marked recession of the ice along the coast, notwithstanding that it 

 lies in 82 S. lat. There must have been a time when the Inland Ice-cap over- 

 flowed these rocks, and joined with an even level the surface of a far higher and 

 deeper Barrier than the remnant which exists to-day. 



