EXPLORATION OF ANTARCTIC LANDS. 473 
field occupied the top, and numerous vertical furrows marked the places 
where avalanches had occurred. At the base there was a mass of snow 
piled against the rocks, its lower portion hardened into ice. 
The heat from the sun reflected by the field of snow was so intense 
that I preferred not to continue the walk with Cook, but sat down in 
the midst of the silent solitude to allow the grandeur of the magnificent 
polar landscape to produce its full impression on my mind. To the 
south and south-east the head of the great bay was formed by a stretch 
of land extending as far as one could see. It was a region quite Alpine 
in its character, but completely buried by glaciers. The snow-fields 
rose towards the interior, forming a veritable ice-cap, terminating in a 
perfectly continuous sky-line. Peaks, mountain ranges, and profound 
gorges there might be; however, they were not to be seen, but lay 
buried beneath the inland ice. Lower down the relief of the land 
could be divined beneath its robe of snow, and here and there a bare 
peak pierced the covering. Nothing like an exposed chain of mountains 
was to be detected, although near the sea a coast range could be made 
FIG, 4,—GLACIATION OF NORTHERN ISLAND OF PALMER. 
out, its sides cut by valleys, through which glaciers of various sizes 
made their way. Along the shore some of the promontories were bare, 
but on the lower ground the ends of the glaciers were covered by a field 
of snow, and were for the most part confluent, forming a platform of ice 
