TOPOGRAPHY OF SOUTH VICTORIA LAND (ANTARCTIC). 511 
must flow eastwards in the same direction as it does a few miles to the 
north of them. If the ice flowed northwards from the south pole, the 
ice-barrier near Cape Crozier would extend out into the sea, just as do 
all the glaciers of South Victoria Land; but this is not so. The edge 
of the barrier is at least half a mile behind Cape Crozier. Again, the 
surface of the ice-sheet would gradually rise from the edge towards 
the south. It does not, but rises from the east towards the west. Then 
it is evident that the great ice-barrier moves from the west towards 
the east. Therefore it appears as if the great ice-barrier is nothing 
more than a huge tongue of ice flowing eastwards into the ocean for a 
distance of perhaps 500 miles, and is possibly not more than 50 miles 
in width; so that, if the party from the Southern Cross, that landed on 
the barrier in lat. 78° 34'S. and long. 164° 32’ W., on February 17, 
1900, had continued their journey farther south, they might have come 
to an open sea on the other side. 
The heavy ice-pack met with near this spot tends to prove the 
existence of a considerable track of ocean to the south, whose frozen 
surface only breaks up Jate in the year and moves out and around the 
extremity of the great ice-tongue or barrier in the usual north-westerly 
direction. If an extensive land area were behind, or farther east, such 
a large mass of sea-ice would be impossible. Sir James Ross reported 
the “ appearance of land to the south,” near the spot where we landed 
on the barrier. We did not, however, sight any land, although we had 
exceptionally fine clear weather. Ido not wish to imply that it does 
not exist, possibly it does, and is either an island or the eastern shore 
of a large deep bight extending from Mount Terror around towards 
Graham Land; but I do believe that there is an open sea between the 
southern side of the great ice-barrier and that land, if it exists. 
There is one thing that appears to go against the above theory, and 
that is the comparatively shallow water found at the spot where we 
landed on the barrier, viz. 350 fathoms. But can we reasonably expect 
to find deep water near the south pole, where everything tends to 
prove the existence of an archipelago of large islands? The few 
indications which we possess of the depth of the ocean in this part of 
the world, seem to indicate that there is a gradual shoaling of the 
ocean from very deep water towards the antarctic lands. The ice-barrier 
in long. 164° W. is distinctly different in appearance to that observed 
further west. Its outlines were more broken and full of indentations ; 
the elevation, too, was no more than 60 or 80 feet. The fact that the 
position of the ice-barrier where we landed upon it was found to be 
many miles further south than reported by Ross is possibly due to a 
large portion of the barrier having here broken off and drifted away in 
the form of huge icebergs. Or, again, Ross might not have approached 
the barrier very closely at this particular spot, his highest south point 
being 30 miles more to the east. 
