B. 31. Deeley — Flow of Antarctic Ice. 37] 



to be his views, and then subject them to criticism. It may be that 

 I have misunderstood Captain Scott. If this should be the case the 

 method of treatment proposed will prevent confusion. 



Referrinoj to the Great Barrier ice Captain Scott writes: "On the 

 slopes of Terror Dr. Wilson found morainic terraces 800 feet above 

 the present surface of the ice. Mr. Ferrar showed that nearly the 

 whole of the Cape Armitage Peninsula was once submerged ; and, in 

 fact, on all sides of us and everywhere were signs of the vastly greater 

 extent of the ancient ice sheet." "It is not until one has grasped 

 the extent of the former glaciation and the comparatively rapid 

 recession of the present that one can hope to explain the many 

 extraordinary ice formations that note remain in the Ross Sea.'''' (The 

 italics are mine.) "The Eoss Sea is comparatively uniform in depth 

 north and south : the ice sheet pressing over this level floor would 

 conseqiiently have been more or less uniform in thickness, and, 

 finally, the wastage would have been more or less uniform over the whole 

 area.^'' "I imagine that it floated away gradually, and that the 

 present rapidly diminishing Barrier is the remains of the great ice sheets 

 "It is not the only remains^ for the whole coast bears signs of the 

 old ice sheet in curious ice formations that can be accounted for in 

 no other way. Lady Newnes Bay contains a large fragment of it ; the 

 present ice discharges are wholly insufficient for such a sheet as fills 

 the hayP " In the course of the narrative I referred to the long 

 ice tongue in latitude 75° S. ; this must also be a remnant of the 

 heavier glaciation. Other typical remnants are to be found in the 

 steep snow slopes and ice-cliffs which fringe many parts of the coast. 

 These slopes, vs^hich are very common about our winter quarters, 

 start on a bare hill-side, and, rvedge-shaped in section, gradually 

 increase in thickness till they end in a perpendicular cliff dipping into 

 the sea, consec[uently they have no present source of supply.''' 



Taking these pai'agraphs together, Scott appears to hold that in 

 Victoria Land there are masses of ice which are not in motion, 

 receive no continuous supply of fresh snow to form fresh ice, and 

 are, consequently, masses of ice which are actual remnants or portions 

 of the great ice-sheet which have not melted. 



Mr. Ferrar also seems to hold the same views, for he refers to 

 Piedmonts as " Large areas of ice which lie at the foot of high land, 

 and which have no obvious single source". And again: "The 

 great snotv-fan between the hills and the stranded moraines on the 

 west side of McMurdo Sound may be taken as an example. This 

 mass oi snow is about 10 miles long and 5 broad, and the whole of it 

 is aground. It has no obvious source, and the surface rises from 

 a few feet at the seaward edge to about 1000 feet on the sides of the 

 foot hills. As it is practically motionless it must afford very material 

 protection to the land." 



It seems to me to be much more probable that the ice masses or 

 sheets referred to are recruited by the snow which falls on them directly 

 from the clouds or is blown on to them from the adjacent rocky slopes. 

 Also that they are really in more or less rapid motion, and are being 

 wasted away where they reach the sea or a point where the sun is 

 strong and very little snow collects. 



