ICEBERGS 171 



thin layers. Towards noon on the 16th the bergs, which had lately been getting 

 rather fewer in number, thronged thicker than ever, so that it required careful 

 navigation to keep the ship in the leads of open water between them. At last 

 we bm-st quite suddenly into an open sea, and saw the crystal city fade from our 

 sieht below the northern horizon." 



These bergs, which were evidently not formed of glacier ice, but were of the 

 natm-e of snow bergs above, passing into " shelf ice " beneath, were no doubt derived 

 from King Edward VII. Land or the adjacent coast-line. They were mostly too 

 low to have had their origin in the Great Ice Barrier. 



The berg in Plate XLIV. Fig. 1 appeared to be about 30 to 40 feet in height, 

 and, as shown by the photograph, possesses long spurs. These project for a distance 

 of from 80 to 100 feet beyond the foot of the cliff of the berg faces. This berg, like 

 all those sighted in this vast fleet, was obviously formed in its upper portion of 

 stratified snow. It seemed probable to us that this rested on old sea ice, and that 

 the great spurs projecting under water from this berg were formed of the latter 

 material. If this surmise is correct, this fleet of bergs must have been formed by 

 the breaking out of a very large area of old sea ice laden with snow. We saw no 

 signs of any true glacier bergs amongst the whole of this vast fleet. No ti'ace 

 was seen of moraine material or erratics on any of the bergs. We thought that 

 they were probably formed for the most part from very old sea ice with many 

 years' accunmlation of snowfall. On a larger scale they closely resemble the 

 snow-laden ice floes formed of one season's sea ice with its overburden of snow, 

 which we photographad in the act of breaking out and being drifted out to 

 sea near Cape Royds in 1908. 



It is, of course, possible that some of these bergs were formed of thin land Ice, 

 instead of sea ice, at the base. Apparently these bergs had been drifted from a point 

 lying to the north of King Edward VII. Land, possibly from its northern shores. 

 According to our present information about King Edward VII. Land, it is a large 

 area of either closely contiguous low-lying islands, or it is a low plateau-shaped 

 portion of the Antarctic continent proper. It is certain, at any rate, in view of the 

 recent discoveries by Amimdsen's Expedition and the Japanese Expedition, the latter 

 under Lieutenant Shiraze, that there is a considerable eatherincr ground for snow in 

 this region. At the same time the snowfall appears to be very light ; this would 

 hinder the development of glaciers on a large scale, and would encourage the growth 

 of old sea ice, the aggregation of wlilch might proceed for many seasons for some 

 distance out to sea along its northern and western shores. The old sea ice, weighted 

 down by the burden of snow, might actually sink below sea-level, and the lower 

 layers of snow on the berg or floe might then become satm-ated with sea water and 

 alternately thawed and frozen, the net result being the growth of a berg, formed of 

 old sea ice at the base, with a layer above that of old snow cemented by salt spray 

 and sea water. Near the top the bergs pass into horizontal and well-stratified 



