118 GLACIOLOGY 



under the rays of the sun. " This process had been proceeding on the snow slopes 

 that we had to climb in order to reach the glacier. Here at the foot of the glacier 

 there were pools of clear water around the rocks, and we were able to drink as 

 much as we wanted, though the contact of the cold water with our cracked lips was 

 painful." At the time when this thaw-water was observed on the rocks at the 

 edge of the Barrier, the temperature was ranging during the day from about 

 20° Fahr. at 8 A.M. to about 25° Fahr. at noon. The party that ascended Mount 

 Erebus observed similar phenomena to that recorded by Shackleton, of a smooth 

 plain of glassy ice at the foot of the steep rock slope of the old cone of Erebus at 

 a height of over 6000 feet above the sea. At the time we believed this frozen lake 

 to have resulted from the congealing of water from some hot spring, but it is far 

 more likely that it was formed from thaw-water in summer draining off the dark 

 rocky aretes, and forming a lake at the base of the steep slope. 



On the journey of the Southern Party over the surface of the Ross Barrier, 

 Adams carefully noted the bearing from time to time of the chief sastrugi. 

 These for the most part trended from S. or S.S.E. to N. or N.N.W. In the 

 case where the party were opposite one of the great inlet glaciers it was noted that 

 the direction of the sastrugi at once changed, or a double set of sastrugi were present. 

 The blizzard sastrugi still trended from a general south or south-easterly direction, 

 whereas the sastrugi caused by the cold air coming down from the plateau along the 

 valleys of the outlet glaciers * had a trend parallel to that of these glacier valleys, 

 that is, from a general westerly or south-westerly direction. In ascending the 

 Beardmore Glacier it was found that all the chief sastrugi had their long axes 

 parallel to the general trend of the valley. On the plateau, south of the farthest 

 land seen, the sastrugi followed chiefly two directions, either between S.S.E. 

 and S.E., or trending from due S. to S.S.W. Their general trend is shown on 

 map. These directions are shown on Plate VI. illustrating Chapter II. 



The glacier itself is about 100 miles in length, with a maximum width of about 

 25 miles. Its average width is about 12 miles. Shackleton observed that where 

 the Beardmore Glacier junctions along the coast-line with the Ross Barrier it has 

 raised enormous waves, by the force of its thrust, in the surface of the Barrier for 

 fully 20 miles out from the shore-line. Again one is impressed here, as at the 

 Reeves Glacier, with the stupendous erosive power of the glacier ice. This is 

 shown on a grand scale in the beautiful photograph by Marshall, taken from the 

 Barrier to south of Mount Hope (Plate XXVIII.), and also (Plate XXIX.) from 

 the summit of Mount Hope looking up the Beardmore Glacier. 



One is at once struck by the sheer cut clifis above " Lower Glacier Depot " on 

 the right, where the dark shadow of the precipice bounding the glacier to the 

 left is thrown across the sux'face of the glacier which recalls that of Mount Larsen. 

 This cliff is approximately about 4000 feet in height. Next, one is impressed 



* That is, the true Fohn wiml. 



