THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



A beautiful eruption occurred on November 27, while 

 a party was breaking camp at a height of about 1600 ft. 

 on the mountain. Many diverging columns of steam shot 

 up simultaneously, forming a design like Prince of Wales 

 feathers. It was accompanied by varied and curious cloud 

 forms. An attempt to depict it is made in the second 

 illustration. 



From May till September, when it was sufficiently 

 dark to allow it to be seen, a red glow was common at 

 the mouth of the crater. Usually it only lighted up at 

 long intervals (ten minutes or more), and appeared to be 

 simply an illumination from some heated matter hidden 

 within the crater. Sometimes it flared up frequently, 

 flashing out every few seconds, with brighter glows at 

 longer intervals. 



On several occasions (as on June 14 and 25), when 

 the voluminous smoke-cloud showed unusual activity, 

 there appeared to be red-hot or incandescent matter 

 thrown out to a considerable height (1000 to 2000 ft. 

 perhaps), and the glow lighted up the lower side of 

 the mushroom cap. Nothing was ever seen to fall outside 

 the edge of the crater. 



Dr. Mackay pointed out some fumaroles on the old 

 crater, which were visible from the camp at Cape Royds. 

 They would not have been detected had they not been seen 

 by the party which ascended the mountain. Occasionally 

 little jets of steam could be seen issuing from these, and 

 on May 21 quite a large cloud of steam came from one of 

 them. 



The greatest steam eruptions did not come from 

 Mount Erebus, but from a point low down between it 

 and Mount Bird. In this direction steam-clouds were 

 seen rising in April, but in June Mawson twice reported 

 considerable eruptions. On June 17 many jets of steam 

 were seen, extending over a considerable area. 



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