4 GENERAL PHYSIOGRAPHY 



from about 20 to 60 miles these ranges are breached by mighty glaciers, from 5 to 

 15 miles wide, and about 100 miles in length. There can be no doubt whatever 

 that, if all the ice in this region melted away, what are now the lower ends of the 

 outlet glaciers would give place to deeply indented fiords, the sea water following up 

 the glacier ice, in its recession, for a distance probably of from 10 to 50 miles back 

 from the coast. In places the great plateau descends in almost vertical cliffs fully 1000 

 feet high (304 metres) into the depths of Ross Sea. Near the western end of the Ross 

 Barrier the stately volcanic pile of Ross Island raises its dark rocks of kenyte lava, 

 some 13,000 feet (3962 metres) above sea-level in Mt. Erebus, over whose summit floats, 

 like a pennon, the great steam cloud — an ideal wind-vane in a region where such an 

 index to the trend of the upper currents is of priceless value. East of Ross Island 

 stretches the great white wall of the Ross Barrier across the senhimgsfeld of Ross Sea to 

 King Edward VII. Land. There low mountains bound the Barrier eastwards, probably 

 formed, in part at all events, of old crystalline rocks, as far as can be judged from 

 dredgings from their vicinity, as well as from the specimens of biotite-hornblende 

 granite found there in situ in 1912 by Lieutenant Shiraze of the Japanese expedition.* 

 North of King Edward VII. Land the region is so beset with dense pack-ice, that the 

 nature of the geographical conditions there to the east of the pack are at present 

 almost wholly unknown. To the south of King Edward VII. Land the Ross Barrier, 

 occupying a large gulf, is bounded on the east partly by land completely buried 

 under ice, partly by land emerging above the ice and attaining an altitude of about 

 4000 feet, like the Carmen Land recently discovered by Amundsen. In places the coast 

 is terraced. The significance of this will be discussed in the chapter on Raised 

 Beaches. 



As regards age, in the physiographic sense, the Antarctic coast on the west side 

 of Ross Sea appears to be neither very young nor yet distinctly mature. Projecting 

 promontories like Cape Washington, Cape Adare, Cape Barne, &c., have been cut 

 back by marine erosion into high cliffs, like those of Cape Washington shown in the 

 accompanying plate. 



Obviously some considerable time is needed for the cutting back of cliffs from 

 200 to nearly 1000 feet in height. The formation of the remarkable coastal plain, 

 which extends from near the Koettlltz Glacier northwards as far as Cape Washington, 

 and which consists in part of worn-down ancient crystalline rocks, in part of 

 morainic material and alluvium from thaw water (the whole mostly adjacent to the 

 coastal piedmont glacier ice), again suggests that considerable time was needed for its 

 development. On the other hand, the great fault scarp of Mount Nansen, although 



* Since the above was written the fine work by Amundsen, "The South Pole," has appeared. In 

 vol. ii. p. 396, J. Schetalig, Secretary of the Mineralogical Institute of Ohristiania University, in provisional 

 remarks on the rock specimens obtained by Lieutenant Prestrud at Scott's nunatak, King Edward VII. 

 Land, records white granite, micaceous granite, grano-diorite, quartz-diorite, and quartz-diorite schists. 

 We are much indebted to Lieut. Shiraze for kindly presenting us with specimens of the hornblende-biotite 

 granite from King Edward VII. Land. 



