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XV. — Glaciology of the South Orkneys * : Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. 

 By J. H. Harvey Pirie, B.Sc, M.D., Geologist and Surgeon. (With Fourteen 

 Text-figs, and Eleven Plates.) 



(MS. received May 26, 1913. Read June 2, 1913. Issued separately December 2, 1913.) 



Glaciation of Graham Land. 



The glaciation of the South Orkneys is very similar in its general character to that of 

 Graham Land,t and it will be convenient, before going on to the detailed description, 

 to give a short summary of already published accounts of the glaciers of that region. 



Previous Descriptions. 



[a) Argtowski. — It is to AngTOWSKi thhX we owe the first modern and accurate 

 description of the glaciation of this region. He describes (l) the general appearance of 

 these ice-sheets seen from a little w^ay off as that of a great mass of snow heavily 

 heaped against the mountains. The surface, however, has a slope far too gentle to 

 produce the eff'ect of a suspended glacier of the Alps or even of the channels of Tierra 

 del Fuego. Elsewhere (2) he gives details of several varieties of ice-caps and suspended 

 coastal glaciers (" glaciers adoss^s ou c6tiers "), which, from the excellent descriptions and 

 plates (v., vii., viii., ix., and x.), leave no doubt that the ice-sheets of the South 

 Orkneys are of a similar type. 



There are no ice-carapaces on the small islands around Laurie Island similar to 

 those on I'ile Louise and I'ilot Bob, and the climatic conditions are not such that it is 

 likely they occur elsewhere in the South Orkneys ; but the stage seen on I'ile Emma, a 

 series of n^ve-fields with concave surfaces " rien autre chose qu'une suite de champs de 

 n6v6 tels qu'on les voit partout dans les regions montagneuses, au-dessus du niveau des 

 neiges perp^tuelles, la oii les glaciers prennent leur origine," is paralleled in the 

 South Orkneys. 



Fields of neve, says ARgTOWSKi, heaped against mountain flanks and ending at the 

 sea in a cliff" of ice form a type of glacier peculiar to the Antarctic. They may end at 

 high-water mark or they may plunge into the sea. Many are exactly comparable with 

 Alpine neve-fields, only without the outflowing glacier. They may form a continuous 

 strip along the coast when joined to one another laterally. They may be partly 



* A Glaciological Map will be published in the Geography volume of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition 

 Reports. 



t The name West Antarctica has recently been given to this region by Dr Otto Nordenskjold. Graham Land is 

 here adopted as being of older standing, namely, 1831. The older name given by BiscoE to the whole of this land- 

 mass is therefore here retained. 



TRANS. ROY. SOG. EDIN., VOL. XLIX., PART IV. (NO. 15). 113 



