482 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
good for the valley in which we were camped. We found some lichens 
and mosses on the nunataks, 
On Saturday night we heard the Belgica return, and on the morning 
of Sunday, February 6, we heard her whistle again. We could not go 
on board, however, because the wind was blowing too strong, and 
Amundsen, who went to look out, saw the ship leaving the bay. We 
changed our camp, and, as the wind was always tearing the tent, we were 
obliged to protect it by a wall of snow. 
On Sunday afternoon we all got on board the Belgica, and found that 
Lecointe and Racovitza had made two landings in our absence. We 
steered towards the east, in order to continue our survey of the coast of 
Graham Land. The air-temperature was high all day, with a maxi- 
mum of 45° Fahr. At night it rained, at times very heavily, and it 
must have produced a great effect upon the snow-fields, because we 
noticed in descending the plateau that the snow had considerably 
changed its appearance, and we sank deeply in the porous mass. The 
rain must have produced a much greater effect than a day of strong 
sunshine. 
On Monday, February 7, the sky was overcast, but the weather was 
clear and the sea calm, and we passed quickly along the southern coast 
close inshore. The coast was very remarkable, on account of its great 
indentations. Hughes gulf was followed by a bay, which we had rapidly 
sailed round, and then came another still larger, of which we followed 
the shore; but further south Lecointe found yet another bay, in which 
very large glaciers terminated. We passed so close to the shore that we 
could not see the high mountains in the interior of the country, but 
only the ends of the glaciers coming from the inland ice. On the other 
hand, we could study in detail the innumerable glaciers which are 
attached to the flanks of the mountains bordering the strait. The rocks 
are very steep, and in many places exposed to view, but too often in 
inaccessible positions. We succeeded, however, in landing at the base 
of a granitic cliff, near which, upon a little promontory, I discovered a 
metamorphic schist in contact with the granite (XIII on map, Fig. 2). 
The direction of the strata was north-west and south-east, and their dip 
towards the north was about 45°; a very friable schist alternated with 
a dark quartzite and dark green strata of a highly metamorphosed rock. 
The granite is below, i.e. in the south, and forms a mountain, close 
against which is a mountain of dark rock quite inaccessible except for 
one cliff, at the base of which I was able to risk myself. The stratifi- 
cation seemed much straighter above than at sea-level. From midday 
the weather was bad, with rain, snow, and fog, but at night it grew finer. 
On Thursday morning I went up in the crow’s-nest in order to 
photograph with my binocular camera the three-quarters of the horizon 
from north to west. It was splendid weather, and here one was 
absolutely alone, with nothing and no one to distract the attention. 
