I9II] SLEDGE LITERATURE 199 
descended to the moat, arriving in exactly the same manner, 
save that the skin vanished from the knuckles of my left 
hand this time ! However, after tramping some distance 
north we found a place where the cornice had broken off, 
and here I was hauled up, my ice axe finding a tender spot 
in my leg as I reached ' glacier ' firma. 
Our rest was disturbed all night by a sound like 
continuous volley-firing. This was due to the cooling 
temperatures causing the glacier to contract and split. 
In the forenoon Wright and P.O. Evans explored the 
ice falls and moraines near Solitary Rocks while Debenham 
and I walked towards Knob Head. The direction of the 
moraines revealed the interesting fact that all the ice from 
the Plateau was moving into Dry Valley and not into the 
Lower Ferrar as was previously supposed. The Ferrar and 
Taylor glaciers are ' apposed ' glaciers linked like Siamese 
twins by the col at Knob Head. Originally they were 
quite distinct, and they will again be separated when the 
ice has dwindled a little farther. 
That evening we discussed literature. P.O. Evans dis- 
liked Dickens and Kipling, whom Debenham and I enjoy 
thoroughly. He preferred a well-known foreign writer 
whose name he very sensibly pronounced Dum-ass. Our 
sledging library was quite extensive, for each of us had 
devoted a pound of our personal allowance to books. I 
will give the catalogue, if only as a caution to later ex- 
plorers. Debenham took my Browning and the ^ Autocrat ' ; 
Evans had a William le Queux and the Red Magazine ; 
Wright had two mathematical books, both in German ; 
I took Debenham's Tennyson and three small German 
