212 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [February 
Dcbcnham had both met parties of seals. We all thought 
of the constant stream along the tide crack by our 
last depot and came to the conclusion that this was 
largely fresh water and formed the main drainage of the 
Upper Koettlitz. By this sub-glacial stream the seals 
penetrated nearly thirty miles inland up the Koettlitz 
Glacier. 
On the 26th we crossed the glacier to Hcald Island — 
which projected a thousand feet above the glacier and 
separated it into two streams of ice. While Debenham 
collected garnets and other interesting minerals, I climbed 
the island and sketched the topography up the glacier. 
In the silts amid the ice we found large sponges and a 
fungus-like alga. The sponge must have been brought up 
by the ice from marine waters at some period far back in 
history. The alga had probably grown in a glacier pond, 
since drained away. 
Next day we marched twelve miles west to explore a 
large tributary glacier which we could see across the low- 
level lateral moraine. After crossing two miles of moraine 
we suddenly came on a steep gully about 100 feet deep, at 
the bottom of which was a strongly flowing stream. This 
originated in a lake three-quarters of a mile long, but for 
a considerable distance flowed under the moraine, and 
ultimately entered the seals' sub-glacial stream and so 
reached the sea. Coleridge's lines entered one's mind : 
' Where Alph the sacred river ran 
Through caverns measureless to man 
Down to a sunless sea.' 
So we christened this stream the Alph River. 
