An Ice Wrapped Continent 



97 



-IT-} t "IB' "7 



The Highest Ice Wall Seen (about 280 feet in height) 



keenly interested in solving the m)"Steries 

 of this great ice-mass. Sixty years be- 

 fore, Ross's triumphant voyage to the 

 south had been abruptly terminated by a 

 frowning cHff of ice, which he traced 

 nearly 400 miles to the east ; such a phe- 

 nomenon was unique, and for sixty years 

 it had been discussed and rediscussed, 

 and many a theory had been built on the 

 slender fioundation of fact which alone 

 the meager information concerning it 

 could afford." 



Before taking The Discovery, to her 

 permanent quarters. Captain ,Seott 

 coasted along the entire front of this bar- 

 rier, and determined that it extended 

 from the volcanoes Erebus and Terror 

 for nearly soo miles to an ice-clad land on 



the west, which he discovered and named 

 King Edward VII Land. When he after- 

 ward charted the track of the ship he 

 found he had sailed from 20 to 30 miles 

 farther south than Ross had done; in 

 other words, that 20 to 30 miles of ice 

 barrier had worn off since Ross had 

 seen it. 



At one point he halted the ship and 

 moored her to the barrier for a day, 

 while diff'erent members of the staff as- 

 cended in a captive balloon to 800 feet 

 elevation. While lying alongside the ice 

 wharf for 24 hours, the ship and wharf 

 rose and fell together. The depth of 

 water here was 315 fathoms. 



Captain Scott makes the important ob- 

 servation that the surface current set into 



