468 
or more feet. Making allowance for the average 
specific gravity, this indicates an average total 
thickness of perhaps 600 ft. In area it occupies many 
thousands of square miles. 
This wonderful block of ice originates fundamentally 
from the glacier-flow over the great plateau-land to 
the south. Every year an additional layer of: con- 
solidated snow is added to its surface by the frequent 
blizzards. These annual additions are clearly marked 
on the dazzling white face near the brink of the ice- 
cliff. However, there is a limit to this increasing 
thickness, for the whole mass is ever moving slowly 
to the north, driven by the irresistible pressure of the 
land-ice behind. Its northern face is crumbling away 
before the action of the sea, breaking down into bergs 
and brash-ice. 
Its present limits are, no doubt, in a state of tem- 
porary equilibrium, in which the crumbling keeps pace 
with the yearly advance. During the third voyage of 
the Aurora, we had the unique experience of witness- 
ing this crumbling actively at work. This happened 
as we were steaming along within 300 yards of the 
cliff face. Suddenly a mass weighing perhaps a 
_ million tons broke away, first sinking down into the 
sea. Then followed an interval of a few minutes, 
during which it majestically rose and sank alternately 
accompanied by a rapid splitting up. At the end of 
five minutes only small bergs and brash-ice remained. 
A position for the landing of the western party was 
chosen on the Shackleton ice shelf. The spot selected 
was about seventeen miles from the land itself—the 
nearest approach possible by the ship. 
At the main base station in Adelie Land, the hut 
was quickly erected and self-recording instruments 
housed and set running without delay. The average 
wind velocity in Adelie Land proved to be far beyond 
anything previously known. The charts of the self- 
recording instruments show the average for the whole 
year to be fifty miles an hour. Average hourly velo- 
cities of one hundred miles and more were common, 
and twenty-four hourly averages of more than ninety 
miles were recorded. Frequently the air travelled for- 
ward in a series of cyclonic gusts, near the foci of 
which momentary velocities were reached very much 
higher than the averages mentioned, Thus, pebbles 
were lifted and structures not buried in the névé 
thrown down. 
Fortunately, the hut was soon drifted over to such 
an extent that only a portion of the roof remained 
above ground. Entrance to the interior was effected 
in fine weather by a trap-door in the roof; at other 
times through tunnels in the névé. 
_ For months the drifting snow never ceased, and 
intervals of many days together passed when it was 
impossible to see one’s hand held at arm’s length. 
The drift-snow became charged with electricity, and 
in the darkness of the winter night all pointed objects 
and often one’s clothes, nose, and finger-tips glowed 
with the pale blue light of St. Elmo’s fire. Add to 
this, the force exerted upon the body, the indescribable 
roar of the hurricane, the sting of the fury-driven 
ice particles, and the piercing cold, and some idea js 
got of the conditions under which the routine of out- 
door observations was maintained. Such weather 
lasted almost nine months of the year. Even in the 
height of summer, blizzard followed blizzard in rapid 
succession. : 
It was not until November 7 that there was sufficient 
moderation in the weather for a final start. Five 
diverging parties worked simultaneously, so that a 
maximum of new. ground was covered during the 
comparatively short sledging season. 
The Near-East Journey.—Stillwell, assisted bv Close 
and Laseron. mapved in the coastline to the east as 
far as the Mertz Glacier. Stillwell’s map illustrates 
NO. 2331, VOL. 93] 
NATURE 
| PULY: 25 you. 
the immense number of rocky islets that fringe the 
mainland in that vicinity. There silver petrels, 
Antarctic petrels, Wilson petrels, snow petrels, cape 
pigeons, etc., were found nesting in large colonies. 
The Eastern Journey.—Further east Madigan, 
assisted by McLean and Correll, continued the work, 
reaching 67° 14'S. lat., and 150° 21’ E.long. Eastward 
of the Mertz Glacier they found the sea frozen, and 
travelled over it for the remainder of the journey, 
crossing the fifteen miles wide tongue of the Ninnis 
Glacier and visiting several headlands by the way. 
In the vicinity of the Horn Bluff there is a sweep of 
coastline bounded by rocky cliffs, tooo ft. high. There 
they discovered coal and carbonaceous shaies out- 
cropping at an elevation of several hundred feet, asso- 
ciated with Red Sandstone and capped by an immense 
thickness of columnar dolerite. Madigan made fre- 
quent determinations of magnetic dip and azimuth. 
Nearer to winter quarters only gneiss and schists are 
exposed. The new land east of the Mertz Glacier we 
have received his Majesty’s gracious permission to 
name King George V. Land. 
The Far-East Journey.—It was across King 
George V. Land that Ninnis, Mertz, and I made the 
sledging journey that ended so unfortunately in the 
deaths of my two companions. It was our intention 
to cross rapidly the coastal highlands to the south of 
the tracks of Madigan’s party, and to pick up the 
coast beyond where they could expect to reach. On 
December 14, when we had travelled outwards 311 
miles, and were crossing the coastal highlands in 
68° 54’ S. lat., 151° 33’ E. long., Ninnis, with his dog 
team and sledge, broke through the roof of a névé- 
covered crevasse and fell into an unfathomable depth 
below. About midnight on January 7-8 Mertz passed 
away, after having been in a delirious and unconscious 
state for some hours. 
My own condition was such as to hold out little 
hope, but I determined to push on to the last, antici- 
pating that at least a record might be left near Aurora 
Peak, a place likely to be visited by search parties. 
On January 11, after spending three days, during 
which particularly bad weather prevailed, in arranging 
everything to facilitate forward progress, I resumed 
the march alone. After three weeks’ creeping forward 
wherein most providential escapes from crevasses were 
experienced, I had the good fortune to stumble upon 
a cache of provisions. Stimulated by good food, the 
march was resumed. Eventually the 53 mile cave 
was reached. Then a strong blizzard, reaching a 
velocity of eighty miles an hour caused further delay. 
The wind fell off on February 8. Descending the ice 
slopes to the hut, the Aurora was visible on the 
horizon, outward bound. 
The Southern Journey.—Of summer sledging —par- 
ties from the main base, one was led by Bage to the 
south, inland over the plateau, and another led by 
Bickerton over the highlands to the west. Bage’s 
companions were Webb and Hurley. Murphy, Hunter, 
and Laseron formed a supporting party accompanying 
them for sixty-seven miles. After leaving the coast 
no sign of rock was seen, their track lying over a 
desolate wind-swept plateau. The wind seldom 
ceased, and drifting snow was the rule. This con- 
stant flow of air has cut in the plateau surface deep 
sastrugi, of such dimensions as are not met with 
elsewhere. Over those obstacles they dragged their 
sledges into the face of the wind for 300 miles out 
from the hut, tc a point within a few miles of the 
magnetic pole. There an elevation of 6500 ft. was 
reached. On one occasion they made a march of 
forty miles. The magnetic data’ from that journey are 
particularly valuable, for Webb took full sets of ob- 
_ servations for dip and azimuth at regular intervals. 
The Western Journey.—Hodgeman and Whetter,, 
