BEARUMORE GLACIER 121 



mostly melted into the ice, disappearing below the surface, but there was much 

 fine yellowish rock dust on the surface of the ice. 



An examination of the photographs of the rocks in the neighbourhood of the 

 Cloudmaker clearly suggest a much more intense glaciation here formerly than now. 

 See Plate XXX. Fig. 2. 



A very interesting feature in connection with the north-west entrance to the 

 Beardmore Glacier Valley at Mount Hope is the existence of a high shelf of rock 

 intensely glaciated around the foot of Mount Hope facing the Barrier. Beautiful 

 ice-cut facets can be observed on the left side, that is, the north-east side of Mount 

 Hope. This part has received the double thrust of the Beardmore Glacier from 

 the S.S.W., and the Great Ice Barrier from the S.E. One would expect under these 

 circumstances to see evidence, such as the photograph actually shows, of the most 

 intense glaciation. Possibly the rock shelf represents a plane of marine erosion 

 during the temporary submergence of the land in interglacial time. Subsequently 

 the shore platform may have been uplifted and then glaciated. It will be noticed 

 that over aU the 380 miles from the Blue Glacier down to the Beardmore Glacier 

 there is no trace of the remarkable coast platform piedmont conspicuous from the 

 Blue Glacier northwards to Mount Nansen. The only suggestion so far of the 

 existence of a coast platform is the rock shelf on the north side of Mount Hope. 

 The fine panoramic view taken by Dr. Eric Marshall, seen on Plate XXXI., shows 

 on the left the Dominion Range, which gradually slopes down to the extreme left 

 towards the Mill Glacier. Next on the right are three well-marked nunataks, 

 Mount Darwin (8023 feet). Mount Buckley (8384 feet), and Mount Bartlett 

 (7869 feet). Mounts Buckley and Bartlett and the stratified formation at their 

 base are formed of Beacon Sandstone, with seams of coal, laminated carbonaceous 

 sandstone, and fireclay. These overlie a massive Cambrian limestone described 

 later in this volume. It would obviously be a matter of very great interest to 

 decide the elevation to which the yieve fields have originally attained around these 

 gigantic nunataks. The nunataks rise to a height of about 3000 feet above the ice 

 at the head of the glacier. 



There can be little doubt that the high platform of coal-measure rocks, immedi- 

 ately behind the two tents in the picture and below the top of Mount Buckley, 

 has formerly been completely over-ridden by the ice, and it may be concluded 

 that the ice was probably 1500 feet higher here formerly than it is at present. 

 The stemming action exerted by the great nunatak just described against the flow 

 of the inland ice northwards down the Beardmore Valley has led to the development 

 of comparatively steep ice slopes near the nunatak. The nature of these ice slopes 

 is well shown on Plate XXXII. The coal-measure rocks of the Buckley Nunatak 

 rise to the left of the central figure in the illustration, and in the middle distance, 

 just above the central figure, the long dark line may be observed of the medial 

 moraine in which the fragment of fossil wood and coaly sandstone were found. The 



