i 
476 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
either awash or rarely rising so much as a yard or two above the 
surface. A little snow rested even on these rocks, and the sea-leopards 
were sleeping upon them very tranquilly. Along the coast there are 
deep crevasses in the ice, so that the cliffs have all the appearance of an 
icefall. The rock of the island is a grey granite, with thick and very 
regular veins of a dark and compact green rock, and also smaller red 
veins. There were some erratics also, but these might very well have 
been carried by floating ice. In attempting to ascend the island, we 
were stopped in a fog, when at a height of about 350 feet, by crevasses 
which we could hardly see, although on returning we were able to 
make out snow-bridges by which we could have crossed some at least. 
The crevasses lay parallel to the shore—that is to say, at right angles 
to the slope. We did not see ice exposed at any place, although in the 
crevasses there was a fine blue colour, but that this was not necessarily 
due to ice is shown by the fact that, on making a hole about 5 feet 
deep by driving an alpenstock into the snow, one could see in it a patch 
of intense blue. The snow was soft, not compact, but agglutinated, 
although of too small a grain to be called névé. As the boat was some 
time in returning for us, we had to pass several hours on a little patch 
of rock shut in by white cliffs of ice on either side, which we could 
not even approach in safety. The clay and sand lying in the hollows 
contained no trace of animal or vegetable life; there was nothing but 
bare polished rock, a few pebbles, and in the water some seaweeds and 
a very few molluscs. The fog cleared in the evening; the boat came 
at last and took us on board. We continued to survey the islands as 
we passed, in order to complete the chart of the north of the bay. 
On January 27 we landed at 10 a.m. on a little islet not far from 
Two Hummocks, where there was no snow-covering, though its highest 
point was 100 feet at least. The islet (VII on map, Fig. 2) was 
scored by numerous cracks which cut the rock into lozenge-shaped 
pieces and covered the surface with angular fragments, the whole 
resembling the lofty crests of the granitic masses of the Alps. The 
only snow to be seen remained in the dark recesses of the cracks. The 
island was a rookery of penguins and cormorants, and in places some 
guano mixed with clay and birds’ feathers was found. 
Towards the afternoon the Belgica steered south-westerly, and in 
the evening we entered the large strait stretching towards the south, 
which turned out to be very wide, and in parts we saw high mountains 
and great glaciers enclosing the headlands, and in one case at least 
extending beyond the coast into the sea. 
Ou Friday, January 28, the weather was foggy, and we made a - 
sounding in the centre of the channel, finding a depth of 342 fathoms. 
We were surrounded by whales (Balznopiera), whose blowing could be 
heard constantly, a mysterions sonnd to break in upon our solitude as 
we floated between the grvy sky and the dark surface of the sea, on 
