THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



Looking down from this height, we could see the glacier 

 stretching away to the point of junction with the 

 Barrier, the mountains rising to east and west. Many 

 of the mountains to the west of the glacier were more 

 or less dome-shaped, but there were some sharp conical 

 peaks to the westward of the particular mountain under 

 which the Upper Glacier Depot had been placed. There 

 were three distinct peaks, as the photographs show, 

 and the plateau ice sweeping down made a long moraine 

 on the west side of the glacier. To the eastward there 

 was a long ridge of high mountains, fairly uniform in 

 shape and without any sharp peaks, but with ridges, 

 apparently of granite, projecting towards the west and 

 so constricting the glacier. The mountains were distant 

 about twenty-five miles, but well-defined stratification 

 lines could plainly be seen. Below us, as we looked 

 from the depot, could be seen the cumulus clouds that 

 always hung above the " Cloud-Maker." 



When we looked to the south from this depot we 

 saw no clouds; there was nothing but hard clear sky. 

 The sky gave no indication of the blizzard winds that 

 were to assail us when we reached the plateau, and 

 after we had gone as far south as we could and retraced 

 our footsteps to the depot, we looked back and saw 

 the same clear sky, with a few wisps of fleecy cloud 

 in it. We had no doubt that below those clouds the 

 pitiless gale was still raging across the great frozen 

 plain, and that the wind which followed us during our 

 march back to the coast was coming from the vicinity 

 of the Pole. As we advanced from the Upper Glacier 

 Depot we came upon great ice falls. The surface looked 

 smooth from a distance, and we thought that we were 

 actually on the plateau, but as we advanced we saw 

 that before us lay enormous ridges rising abruptly. 

 We had to relay our gear over these ridges, and often 



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