THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



991 



ceeded. Near the southwest portion of 

 the crater there was an immense rib in 

 the rim, perhaps 300 to 400 feet deep. 

 The crater wall opposite the one at the 

 top of which we were standing presented 

 features of special interest. Beds of dark 

 pumiceous lava or pumice alternated with 

 white zones of snow. There was no 

 direct evidence that the snow was bedded 

 with the lava, though it was possible 

 that such may have been the case. From 

 the top of one of the thickest of the lava 

 or pumice beds, just where it touched the 

 belt of snow, there rose scores of small 

 steam jets all in a row. They were too 

 numerous and too close together to have 

 been each an independent fumarole ; the 

 appearance was rather suggestive of the 

 snow being converted into steam by the 

 heat of the layer of rock immediately 

 below it." 



Two features of the geology of Erebus 

 which are specially distinctive are the 

 vast quantities of large and perfect feld- 

 spar crystals and the ice fumaroles. The 

 crystals are from two to three inches in 

 length. Many of them have had their 

 angles and edges slightly rounded by 

 attrition, through clashing against one 

 another when they were originally pro- 

 jected from the funnel of the volcano, 

 but numbers of them are beautifully per- 

 fect. The fluid lava which once sur- 

 rounded them has been blown away in 

 the form of fine dust by the force of 

 steam explosions, and the crystals have 

 been left behind intact. 



The ice fumaroles are specially re- 

 markable. About fifty of these were 

 visible to us on the track which we fol- 

 lowed to and from the crater, and doubt- 

 less there were numbers that we did not 

 see. These unique ice-mounds have re- 

 sulted from the condensation of vapor 

 around the orifices of the fumaroles. It 

 is only under conditions of very low 

 temperature that such structures could 

 exist. No structures like them are known 

 in any other part of the world. 



UEE DISCOVERED IN THE ICE DURING THE 

 WINTER 



On March 13 we experienced a very 

 fierce blizzard. The hut shook and 



rocked in spite of our sheltered position, 

 and articles that we had left lying loose 

 outside were scattered far and wide. 

 Even cases weighing from 50 to 80 

 pounds were shifted from where they 

 had been resting, showing the enormous 

 velocity of the wind. When the gale was 

 over we put everything that was likely 

 to blow away into positions of greater 

 safety. 



It was on this day also that Murray 

 found living microscopical animals on 

 some fungus that had been thawed out 

 from a lump of ice taken from the bot- 

 tom of one of the lakes. This was one 

 of the most interesting biological dis- 

 coveries that had been made in the Ant- 

 arctic, for the study of these minute 

 creatures occupied our biologist for a 

 great part of his stay in the south, and 

 threw a new light on the capability of 

 life to exist under conditions of extreme 

 cold and in the face of great variations 

 of temperature. 



We all became vastly interested in the 

 rotifers during our stay, and the work 

 of the biologist in this respect was 

 watched with keen attention. From our 

 point of view there was an element of 

 humor in the endeavors of Murray to 

 slay the little animals he had found. He 

 used to thaw them out from a block of 

 ice, freeze them up again, and repeat this 

 process several times without producing 

 any result as far as the rotifers were 

 concerned. Then he tested them in brine 

 so strongly saline that it would not 

 freeze at a temperature above minus 7 

 Fahr., and still the animals lived. A 

 good proportion of them survived a tem- 

 perature of 200 Fahr. It became a con- 

 test between rotifers and scientist, and 

 generally the rotifers seemed to triumph. 



THE SOUTHERN PARTY 



The southern party, consisting of 

 Shackleton, Adams, Marshall, and Wild, 

 left the winter quarters October 29, 1908, 

 and for five weeks headed up the Ice 

 Barrier. 



On November 26 we camped in lati- 

 tude 82 i8y 2 ' south, longitude 168 

 east, having passed the "furthest south" 



