THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



That night there was a full moon. The sky a lovely 

 deep blue near the zenith, paler towards the horizon. 

 When the moon came over the great steam cloud of 

 Erebus (223/^° of arc) the scene was sublime. Its hght 

 was brightly reflected from the small glaciers at the south- 

 west foot of the cone of Erebus ; all the rest of the west 

 and north-west slope was in deep shadow. In middle 

 distance below the base of the cone soft white mist swathed 

 the mountain. Near Backdoor Bay and Cape Royds 

 brightly moonlit patches of snow showed up the black 

 and dark brown patches of rock; our hut and stable in 

 the middle of the foreground with the dazzling white 

 surface of our little lake with its winding bays and coves. 



On June 17, at 8 p.m., we noticed remarkable white 

 cloud-like dense white cumulus to north-north-east over 

 the ridge at the back of our hut and towards Horseshoe 

 Bay. 



At 11 P.M. (about) Mawson came running down from 

 Anemometer ridge to say that an eruption had broken 

 out from a new quarter. We rushed out and witnessed 

 a distinct eruption amongst the huge masses of steam 

 hanging in the air to the north-north-east. The new mass 

 of steam, of great volume, rolled up rapidly, starting at 

 perhaps 2000 ft. above sea-level, to probably at least 5000 

 ft. above the sea. A photograph was taken of it, and 

 afterwards more distinct steam eruptions were witnessed. 



The eruption appeared to have its origin on the 

 southerly and south-south-west slope of Mount Bird, at 

 perhaps about 2000 ft. above the sea-level. The steam 

 cloud appeared to ascend to a height of about 5000 ft. 

 above sea-level in an incredibly short space of time. These 

 fumaroles or intermittent geysers must be among the most 

 powerful known. They appear to be developed near the 

 meridianal earth crack which extends from Mount Bird 

 southerly through Mount Erebus. 



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