THE ICE. 255 



been discovered concerning the mode of movement of 

 the Antarctic inland ice. It is sure to be sluggish and 

 uniform over extensive tracts, as otherwise the inland ice 

 would hardly terminate along the sea in an uninterrupted 

 wall of such extraordinary length — a phenomenon seen in 

 Greenland, only in the rivers of ice that descend into the 

 fjords. This is just the specially characteristic feature of 

 the Antarctic regions that even on small, level isles, such 

 as Dundee Island, the ice, which cannot be very thick, 

 descends to the sea and terminates in a perpendicular 

 wall. In this particular case the thickness of the ice is 

 only 30 feet to 40 feet ; at Adelaide Isle it was even less ; 

 and quite as low, or only a mere trifle higher, at Snow 

 Land, east of Mount Haddington. On the other hand, 

 the wall of ice at Joinville Island, and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Enderby Land, attains a height of about 

 100 feet, and in the region of Wilkes Land and Victoria 

 Land, heights of 100 feet to 200 feet are of common 

 occurrence. In these very regions we find the most 

 extensive walls of ice, viz., those off the Clarie coast, 

 and one of still greater length east of Mount Terror. 

 Both of these formations used to perplex geographers 

 very greatly ; they were regarded as very old formations 

 of sea ice, because with the wall off the Clarie coast the 

 fact was overlooked that Wilkes had seen land behind 

 it, and, with that to the east of Mount Terror, that its 

 gradual transition into a wall of ice at the foot of the 

 great volcanoes made it probable that it was a natural 

 formation of land ice. Wherever up to now land has 

 been distinctly seen behind the large walls of ice, it was 

 observed that its terminal wall was almost regularly some 

 nautical miles off the recognisable beginning of the land, 

 and the same applies to the more isolated ice rivers 

 which descend from the Admiralty Range in Victoria 

 Land. That in most, if not in all, cases these walls 

 float was proved by soundings made on one occasion 



