SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 



has played a considerable part in the heaping up of this 

 material at the mouth of the glacier. It is proposed to 

 deal more fully with this subject in that section of the 

 chapter having reference to the recent elevation of land. 



Section II 



DESCRIPTION OF THE STRANDED MORAINES AND DRY VALLEY, 

 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE RECENT ELEVATION 

 OF THE LAND BORDERING McMURDO SOUND 



We first visited the moraines on December 4, when I 

 collected a few specimens of rock and some moss and 

 fungus for Murray, but was not able to take much extra 

 weight as we were already pulling 215 lb. per man. Sub- 

 sequent visits were made on December 13 and January 5, 

 and it is from notes taken on these three visits that I 

 have compiled the description which follows. 



The moraines are several miles long and of consider- 

 able breadth, while many of their numerous small hills 

 reach a height of between a hundred and a hundred and 

 fifty feet. They consist of a heterogeneous collection of 

 debris of numerous varieties of rocks, and the material 

 ranges in size from blocks containing many cubic feet 

 of rock to the finest dust. They are separated from the 

 Piedmont glacier which here fringes the mountains by a 

 stream-channel cut out almost to sea-level, and the water 

 which has accomplished this erosion is evidently the result 

 of the summer thaw, the stream being fed during that 

 season both from the glacier and from the snowdrifts on 

 the western side of the moraines. This stream is under- 

 cutting the ice, and from the exposures of morainic mate- 

 rial on its western bank it appears probable that the mantle 

 of debris continues right up to the flanks of the foothills to 

 the west. 



341 



