EXPLORATION OF ANTARCTIC LANDS. 481 
great size. Here, on the contrary, most of the coastal glaciers are of a 
different type, terminating at the level of the sea. At7 p-t. we were 
still mounting upwards, the weather being remarkably fine, and the 
view of Graham Land grew finer and finer. The relief of that land, 
although excessively varied, is singularly softened by the glaciers and 
the accumulated snow, so that it is only because the valleys hollowed 
by the running water of some epoch are so deep that some crests and 
very abrupt slopes remain bare. At the height of 1600 feet we were 
stopped by a crevasse over 30 feet wide, which we could not cross, and 
other crevasses appeared beyond it, the whole glacier having a terraced 
structure. We had consequently to descend again to the ice-plain in 
order to camp for the night. During the whole of Tuesday we were 
dragging our loads uselessly towards a hill in the west, but in that 
direction also we were stopped by numerous crevasses, and, in any case, 
if we had reached the hill we should only have been able to see a part of 
the horizon. Again we had to retrace our steps to the ice-plain to pass 
the night, and there we left our camp for the two following days, seeing 
that it was impossible to reach any high summit. We climbed two 
nunataks in the east, one of which was easily ascended, and on it 
Danco and de Gerlache made observations with the theodolite. The 
minimum temperature of the night between Tuesday and Wednesday 
was 25°°5 Fahr., and between Thursday and Friday 24°-6 Fahr. 
The radiation from the sun during the three days had not sufficed to 
change the snow into névé. On Friday I went over the whole of the 
plain, and found snow at the surface everywhere, but at a depth of 
4 inches there was frozen névé. The plain, upon which we camped, is 
the result of the complete filling of the valley; for it is certainly a 
valley which descends from these heights, but it is very difficult to give 
the orography of the lower parts, as the glacier and the accumulation of 
the eternal snow hid the form of the land. The formation of the ice, 
however, showed me that the nunataks are the summits of the sides of 
the valley, and the cascade that we vainly tried to cross is the step which 
would have led us to another plain of ice, covering a second terrace of 
the same valley. Amundsen and Cook tried to pass the crevasses by 
climbing along the walls of rock which bordered that section of the 
glacier in places, but they were unable to reach their goal. 
From the summit of the more distant nunatak Cook and I hada good 
view of the mer de glace in which a large glacier terminated at the head 
of the bay where we landed; although the broken fragments could not 
give rise to icebergs as they entered the water, it seemed quite possible 
that in winter, when the bay is frozen enough, ice might accumulate 
to form one or more bergs. In any case, it appeared certain to me that 
the bottom of this great valley extended below the level of the sea; and 
I was also led to believe, judging from the distances which separated 
the nunataks and the angle of slope of the walls, that the same holds 
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