THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



to Mawson, who made the study of ice part of his work. 

 Beyond Blue Lake, to the northward, lay Clear Lake, 

 the deepest inland body of water in our vicinity. To the 

 left as one looked north, close to the coast, was a circular 

 basin which we called Coast Lake, where, when we first 

 arrived, hundreds of Skua gulls were bathing and flying 

 about. Following the coast from this point back towards 

 winter quarters was another body of water called Green 

 Lake. In all these various lakes something of interest to 

 science was discovered, and though they were quite small, 

 they were very important to our work and in our eyes, 

 and were a source of continuous interest to us during our 

 stay in the vicinity. Beyond Blue Lake, to the east, rose 

 the lower slopes of Mount Erebus, covered with ice and 

 snow. After passing one or two ridges of volcanic rocks, 

 there stretched a long snow plain, across which sledges 

 could travel without having their runners torn by gravel. 

 The slope down to Blue Lake was picked out for ski-ing 

 and it was here, in the early days, when work was over, 

 that some of our party used to slide from the top of the 

 slope for about two hundred feet, arriving at the bottom 

 in a few seconds, and shooting out across the frozen 

 surface of the Lake, until brought up by the rising slope 

 on the other side. To the north of Clear Lake the usual 

 hills of volcanic rock separated by valleys filled more or 

 less with snow-drifts, stretched for a distance of about a 

 mile. Beyond this lay the coast, to the right of which, 

 looking north, was Horse Shoe Bay, about four miles from 

 our winter quarters ; further to the right of the northern 

 end of Cape Royds the slopes of Erebus were reached 

 again. From the northern coast a good view could 

 be obtained of Cape Bird, and from the height we could 

 see Castle Rock to the south, distant about eighteen miles 

 from the winter quarters. The walk from Hut Point to 

 Castle Rock was familiar to us on the last expedition. 



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