THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



Only two of the many stream-channels which furrow 

 the district immediately round the camp are now active, 

 the rest being at the best only occupied by a series of 

 stagnant pools, while numerous depressions of smaller ex- 

 tent, with a heavy efflorescence of salt coating the gravel, 

 mark the site of former pools. 



The most northerly and most flourishing stream in the 

 Dry Valley has cut a channel fifty feet deep through the 

 stratified gravel, the sides of which slope steeply at angles 

 between 45° and 75°. The water here was unfit to drink, 

 owing to the amount of fine sediment held in suspension. 

 As the stream became sluggish when breaking up into 

 numerous branches and meandering across the alluvial 

 stretches of land at its mouth, this fine sediment could 

 quite easily be observed settling down in sufficient quantity 

 to add appreciably to the delta even in the course of a 

 few days. 



During our stay at this camp I collected numerous 

 specimens of the more interesting erratics and bags of 

 the finer material of the deposits, and Brocklehurst 

 secured specimens from New Harbour Heights, including 

 two pieces of fairly pure calcite from one of the limestones 

 interbedded with the Archgean schists. 



Biological Field Notes 



Specimens of moss, fungus and lichen were obtained 

 for Murray. One of these specimens is worth individual 

 notice, namely, a fungus -like substance growing as a thick 

 layer on the black mud of the tide-flats just above the 

 present level of the water and well inside the region which 

 must be covered either at an ordinary high tide or during 

 any unusual rise of the water. 



The peculiar point about the plant which first struck 

 me was the formation of a series of cones, as much as six 



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