1 8 Recent Antarctic Exploration 



when, besides other misfortunes, they were nearly at the end 

 of their provisions, but it was the means of revealing the fact 

 that the ice in this district moves northward at the rate of 

 between 500 and 600 yards per annum. Further observations, 

 however, will be required before it can be accepted that the 

 Barrier ice-sheet has a general motion at this rate. 



From depot A the route continued southwards until lat. 

 79 40' S. was reached ; the mountainous coast-line on the 

 west having been kept at a distance of about seventy miles. 

 From here the course was altered to south-west in order to 

 close the coast and, if possible, to land. A second depot (B) 

 was established in lat. 80 25' S. ; and here attempts to land 

 were made, but they were defeated by crevasses and other ice 

 disturbances. From dep6t B the course was continued south- 

 wards in discouraging circumstances, against which few would 

 have been able to make head. 



On December 28, the camp was pitched in lat. 82 n' S. ; 

 and, although the actual "farthest south" 82 17' S. was 

 reached on the 3Oth, the weather both on the 29th and the 

 3Oth was thick so that no distant view could be obtained. 

 On the 28th Captain Scott writes (ii. 76): 



" It is a glorious evening, and fortune could not have provided us 

 with a more perfect view of our surroundings. We are looking up a 

 broad deep inlet or strait which stretches away to the south-west for 

 thirty or forty miles before it reaches its boundary of cliff and snow-slope. 

 Beyond, rising fold on fold, are the great nfot fields that clothe the 

 distant range; against the pale blue sky the outline of the mountain 

 ridge rises and falls over numerous peaks till, with a sharp turn upward, 

 it culminates in the lofty summit of Mt Markham....The eastern foothills 

 of the high range form the southern limit of the strait ; they are fringed 

 with high cliffs and steep snow-slopes.... Between the high range and the 

 barrier there must lie immense undulating snow plateaux covering the 

 lesser foothills, which seem rather to increase in height to the left until 

 they fall sharply to the barrier level almost due south of us. To the 

 eastward of this again, we get our view to the farthest south ; and we 

 have been studying it again and again to gather fresh information with 

 the changing bearings of the sun. Mount Longstaff we calculate as 

 10,000 feet. It is formed by the meeting of two long and comparatively 

 regular slopes; that to the east stretches out into the barrier and ends in 

 a long snow-cape which bears about S. 14 E. ; that to the west is lost 



