228 GENERAL GEOLOGY 



Scattered about the Skuary are a number of small cones, consisting mainly of 

 angular fragments of a brownish kenyte, with here and there a fragment of a 

 fairly fine-grained tuff. Along the margin of the glacier which borders the rock 

 there is arranged in a fairly regular row a few paces apart a large number, ten 

 or twenty, of similar cones. There was very little time to examine thera, as it 

 was necessary to meet the motor at Inaccessible Island. I am inclined, however, 

 to think that most of these cones are eskers left bare by the retreat of the glacier, 

 though the presence of one cone which seemed to be of massive kenyte makes one 

 somewhat doubtful of the origin of those which have not yet been examined. 



At the time when this visit to the Skuary took place the thaw had just set 

 in in earnest. This particular day was cloudy, and the streams of thaw-water had 

 been frozen, but the ridged appearance of the snow-drifts and the ice in the 

 stream-channels all spoke powerfully of the sun's influence exerted during the 

 past one or two days. On November 18th there was still a quantity of snow 

 left, but the Western Party, when passing this spot a few days later in the 

 beginning of December, remarked the fact that scarcely any snow remained in spite 

 of a di'ift-laden wind which had blown for three or four days at the end of 

 November. 



BEAUFORT ISLAND 



This high conical volcanic island lies about 13 miles N.N.E. from Cape Bird. 

 As it lay right in the path of the former Ross Barrier during maximum glaciation, 

 it would be a matter of great interest to determme up to what level the ice-sheet 

 formerly ascended its flanks. 



