I91I] AN EVENTFUL LUNCH 215 
This splendid track — which we called ' Alph Avenue ' 
— enabled us to proceed with unexpected ease, and each 
day we halted and explored one of the numerous tributary 
valleys which characterised the hinterland. 
Each valley was of the same type. A great bar of 
debris — a terminal moraine in fact — some three hundred 
feet high blocked the mouth of the tributary. Within this 
was a bare rounded valley extending to the foot of Lister. 
Some five miles from the coast was the snout of a tributary 
glacier which had originally deposited the moraine, but now 
was shrunk back to a mere shadow of its former self. 
All along our route were groups of seals, and numerous 
skua gulls enlivened the surroundings. Coming back from 
one of our detours I was much amused to see Wright 
crawling about among the seals in his investigation of 
the ice — while thirty skuas were anxiously awaiting the 
demise of this obviously crazy seal ! 
The summer was over now and we were getting fifty 
degrees of frost in the nights. The weather was gloomy, 
the sun rarely appearing till it had sunk below the level of 
the pall of stratus. 
We had an eventful lunch just before reaching our 
depot. We pitched the tent and fastened the door to keep 
out the wind. I was sitting next the door with my precious 
lumps of sugar on the floorcloth when I noticed that water 
was creeping into the tent. In a few seconds it was 
several inches deep. We -bolted our raisins, pocketed the 
lumps of butter and sugar and rushed out with the sleeping- 
bags. There was a small lake all round us, rapidly rising 
round sledge and tent. The water was rushing out of a 
