26l 



Mount Baxter to the N. and Mount Larsen to the S. are both prominent 

 points of the Nansen tabular range of mountains. In this sketch, taken close in- 

 shore, they are partly covered by the low foot-hills of the coast-line. (See also 

 Plate CXXXIII.) 



Mount New Zealand and Mount Queensland lie almost at the back of Mount 

 Melbourne, which appears on the extreme right of the sketch. 



PLATE CXXXIII. MOUNT NANSEN. 

 From a sketch made on board ship in passing ; Jan. 19, 190*2. (Map A.) 



The highest point of this range, named after Dr Fridtjof Nansen, has a height 

 above sea-level of 8788 feet, i.e., more than 400 feet greater than that of Mount 

 Melbourne. 



For geological details of the range, so far as they may be surmised without 

 actual exploration, the reader may be referred to Mr Ferrar's report on the 

 geology of the expedition. Nat. Hist. Rep., vol. i., pp. 21, 39, 54. 



It must suffice here to say that so far from Dr M'Cormick's view being the 

 the correct one, namely, that the whole range was volcanic, there is evidence 

 throughout of horizontal structure in the rock masses, while the peaks, which are 

 gradually pyramidal in outline, have their shoulders truncated sharply at the shore 

 a structure which could not be produced by the eruption of rocks from local centres. 



The " Nunatak " of rock which stands out of the ice like a black beehive on 

 the left of this sketch forms a very noticeable and peculiar landmark. 



PLATE CXXXIV. THE ROYAL SOCIETY RANGE AND THE VIEW 

 S. AND W. FROM WINTER-QUARTERS BAY. 



From a sketch made looking S. and W. from Winter-quarters Bay ; March 1902. 

 (Map B.) 



The extreme left, Minna Bluff, bears a little E. of S. from Winter-quarters 

 Bay. To the left of this might have been added the White Island. 



The highest point of Black Island is 3534 feet ; Mount Discovery, a quiescent 

 volcanic cone, is 9085 ; the highest point of Brown Island is 2812 feet ; and beyond 

 it, Mount Morning is 5779 feet above sea-level. In no case, during our stay in 

 M'Murdo Sound, did open water ever reach the foot of the pieces of land just 

 named; all of them rise out of a frozen sheet of old ice, an inseparable com- 

 munion of glacier-ice, barrier-ice, and old sea-ice here floating and there obviously 



aground, here absolutely clean, and there, on the other hand, so full of morainic 



R 2 



