BUTTER POINT PIEDMONT GLACIER 99 



the overhanging edges of this cHff, and at one spot where the chff was about 12 feet 

 high these icicles grew until they reached the drifts on the sea ice and became 6 or 

 more inches in thickness. The effect of the summer sun on the icicles was curious. 

 When freshly formed they were quite clear and sound, and if they were broken in 

 half no structure could be seen on the broken surfaces. After a day or two's ex- 

 posure, however, to the direct rays of the sun they developed a radial fibrous structure, 

 which was very marked and comparable with that of a belemnite. At a further stage 

 of their melting they became so rotten that icicles with a diameter of 3 or 4 inches 

 would crush easily in the hand, having been reduced apparently to a mere shell. 



Remarkable examples of the plasticity of ice were to be seen along the ice-clift' 

 in the early days of January. We have already mentioned that many of the icicles 

 had grown until they had reached the snow-drifts on the sea ice below the cliff. 

 As the thaw got in its work on the cornice from which these icicles depended large 

 portions of it fell off, and many other portions gradually subsided. 



The icicles below the fallen portions were of course smashed to fragments, but 

 many of those beneath the parts which subsided more slowly were bent into the 

 most weird shapes imaginable. We have frequently seen icicles converted in less 

 than twenty-four hours into snake-like shapes, or bent at right, and even at acute, 

 angles without the slightest sign of fracture within the icicle itself The place at 

 which the bending took place merely became slightly flattened and widened, as does 

 the bend in a glass rod. 



The surface of this piedmont was very rough. Near and parallel to the edge 

 of the cliff at the place where our depot was placed were one or two cracks several 

 inches wide. 



The ice was full of sediment, and in consequence of this the top 2 feet became 

 very rotten indeed during our stay at the jwint. 



REVIEW OF THE PIEDMONT OF THE WEST COAST 



OF ROSS SEA* 



This piedmont is restricted to the low-lying part of the great horst, from the 

 Blue Glacier, south of the Ferrar Glacier to the Drygalski Ice Barrier, a distance 

 of 160 miles. 



It is hard to say exactly where the snow, creeping down the eastern slopes of 

 the coastal hills, passes from the condition of hard snow .into that of glacier ice, but 

 on the assumption that the change takes place at the flattening of the foothills to 

 the surface of the coastal plain, the width of the piedmont, where it attains its 

 maximum development, that is. south of the Drygalski Ice Barrier, may be taken 

 as about 20 miles. It narrows to about 1 miles east of Mount George Murray. 



* This has since been named the Wilson Piedmont in memory of Dr. E. A. Wilson, Chief of 

 Scientific Staff of Captain Scott's Last Expedition. 



