474 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
which gave origin to icebergs. That valleys exist, though they do not 
show on the surface, is clear from the differences in the size and appear- 
ance of the glaciers. The largest are of gentle slope, the smaller steep 
and broken by numerous crevasses. Some of the glaciers suspended from 
the cliffs were of extraordinary dimensions. Thus, by the appearance of 
the surface of the ice, and nothing else, one could see that the configura- 
tion of the buried land was complicated, and underneath each glacier 
there must be a great excavated valley, along the bed of which the ice 
glides downward. The proof of the existence of valleys is very interest- 
ing, for it points to a time when there was no ice, but dry land being 
eroded by the running water of rivers. On the other hand, the thought 
of these buried valleys brought to my mind the channels of Tierra del 
Fuego, as they must have appeared in the glacial period, when the end 
of the Andean chain lay under just such an ice-sheet. 
At 11 a.m. we were once more on board the Belgica, steering north-east 
in order to follow and survey the south-east coast of Palmer land. At 
2 p.m. we were opposite a cape where the coast-line changed its direc- 
tion, and here we made our fifth landing at the head of a little bay 
where the pebbly, boulder-strewn beach sloped so gently that we had to 
wade ashore, and pull the boat out of the water for safety (V on map, 
Fig. 2). The rocks of the beach were erratics from a moraine, and 
consisted mainly of a grey hornblende granite, but other granites also 
occurred, especially one with orthoclase. There were also numerous 
ancient eruptive rocks, some fine boulders of gneiss, as well as quartzites, 
porphyries, and a metamorphic schist. It was a fascinating problem to 
consider how so great a variety of rocks came together here. They did 
not seem to have been carried by floating ice, and two hypotheses sug- 
gested themselves: Either the rocks were brought by the glacier which 
entered the head of the bay, or they dated back to a time when the 
glacial conditions were very different from those now prevailing. The 
former hypothesis seemed improbable, for the stones were worn, as if 
they had come from far; although this argument is not a very strong 
one, since the waves had made their action felt also. On the other hand, 
the relief of the land was opposed to the formation of an important 
glacier at this place. The mountains which border the island along 
which we had been sailing are very near the shore, very steep, sometimes 
even perpendicular, and their crests are often completely free from ice. 
Only the lowest part of the flanks of the mountain are covered with 
suspended glaciers separated from the snow-fields above, and terminat- 
ing either on the beach or beyond it in the water, Hence the ice which 
enters the bay cannot come from any great distance, and the material 
which it carries must be that of which the mountain is composed. 
Again, the variety of rocks in this moraine is too great to be derived 
from the neighbouring mountains; they unquestionably come from 
different places extending over a wide region. Hence, if these rocks are 
