ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE AND RESEARCH 



the inland valleys and cliffs next, and the nunataks, 

 etc., last. I shall deal mainly with the Ross Sea area. 



Islands. — The geographer is always interested in 

 small islands, for from them he may often learn much 

 as to the relative movements of land and sea. Un- 

 fortunately in the Antarctic no very definite evidence 

 of elevated beaches, notches, caves, etc., was apparent. 

 This was partly no doubt due to the fact that the more 

 or less permanent sea-ice prevents the formation of 

 many beaches and allied features. The steep-to cliffs 

 of some of the islands in the southwest of the Ross 

 Sea indicate fairly late subsidence, and this, if gen- 

 erally true of the locality, naturally hides most of the 

 evidence of marine erosion. 



Shore lines. — No doubt the usual shore line of the 

 Antarctic consists of the inhospitable ice-front of the 

 great Plateau ice cap. This permits no study of the 

 underlying topography. The writer was fortunate, 

 therefore, to be stationed in MacMurdo Sound (see 

 Figure 8). Here on a coast line of about two hun- 

 dred miles, from Cape Bird to Gregory Island, the 

 following varying shore lines occur : 



