THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



in size from an inch or so up to a yard in diameter. 

 Quantities of felspar crystals are interspersed with 

 them, and both are incrusted with sulphur. The 

 fumes rising from the crater at the time of our visit 

 smelt strongly of sulphur, and this fact, considered in 

 conjunction with the yellow coating of sulphur round 

 the rim of the active crater, shows that the volcano is 

 partly in a solfataric stage. At the same time the fre- 

 quent glows on the steam cloud above the crater, and 

 at the actual edge, as seen from our winter quarters 

 during the winter months, prove that molten lava still 

 wells up into the crater. The fresh volcanic bombs 

 picked up by us at spots four miles distant from the crater 

 and lying on the surface of comparatively new snow are 

 evidence that Erebus has recently been projecting lava 

 to great heights. 



"As regards size, as already mentioned, the active 

 crater measures about half a mile by one-third of a mile 

 in diameter, and is about 900 ft. in depth. If the active 

 crater of Erebus be compared with that of Vesuvius 

 it will be found that the former is about three times 

 as deep as that of the latter. One of the most striking 

 features observed at the summit was the long row of 

 steam jets about 300 ft. below the inside rim of the 

 crater. There were many scores of these developed at 

 the upper surface of a thick bed of dark lava or pumice, 

 which projected slightly into the crater. Possibly 

 the horizon of the steam jets represented a high- 

 water mark, so to speak, of lava within the crater, 

 and the steam may have been due to the vapourising 

 of snow in contact with the hot rock; certainly there 

 was a white band of snow above the zone of dark rock 

 which gave origin to the steam jets, but whether this 

 snow formed a definite bed intercalated in the pumice 

 beds or whether it was a superficial layer caught in the 



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