SEARCHING FOR A PATH 



mile further on. We were well pleased with this dis- 

 covery, but as the glacier front ascended about 1500 ft. 

 in less than a mile we did not look forward to the task 

 of getting our heavy sledge up this steep slope, encumb- 

 ered as it was with soft deep thawing snow. 



On our return to the shore-line down the glacier 

 slope we discovered that it was slightly crevassed 

 in places, though not heavily so. At the foot of the 

 glacier, and a short distance towards our camp, we 

 found a moraine gravel. This was intermixed with a 

 dark marine clay containing numerous remains of 

 serpulse, pecten shells, bryozoa, foraminifera, &c. Mac- 

 kay also found a perfect specimen of a solitary coral, 

 allied to Delto-cyathus, and also a Waldheimia. All 

 these specimens were carefully preserved and brought 

 into camp. While we were collecting these specimens 

 we could hear the roar of many mountain torrents 

 descending the steep granite slopes of the great moun- 

 tain mass to the south of our branch glacier. Occa- 

 sionally, too, we heard the boom and crash of an ava- 

 lanche descending from the high mountain top. Such 

 sounds were strange to our ears, accustomed so long 

 to the almost perfect solitude and silence of the Antarctic, 

 hitherto broken only by the bleating of baby seals and 

 the call of the penguins. 



Mawson discovered in another part of the moraine, 

 nearer to our camp, a bright green mineral forming 

 thin crusts on a very pretty quartz and felspar porphyry. 

 These we decided to examine more carefully on the 

 morrow. We were all thoroughly exhausted after the 

 day's work, and Mackay had a rather bad attack of snow- 

 blindness. For some time after we got into the sleep- 

 ing-bag, and before we dozed off, we could still hear 

 the intermittent roar of avalanches like the booming of 

 distant artillery. 



vom.-ii 161 



