19 II] 'TOO TIRED TO THINK' 241 
On the next day we continued west. The clear sheet 
of ice we had seen ahead of us was now covered with 
snow and our hopes of easy sledging were not fulfilled. 
At lunch time the sun was so hot that the surface was 
not traversable. We halted therefore and Gran and I 
walked south to a small bay. 
There was a wonderful granite cliff with overhanging 
glacier streams connecting the upper ice with the lower. 
Probably not long ago a continuous ice sheet covered 
this 150-feet cliff, but now only comparatively narrow 
ribbons of ice are left, though these are quite continuous 
in spite of the steep fall. They were, however, in an 
unstable position and we heard several avalanches — 
hence our name for it of Avalanche Bay. Just to the 
east of these ' ice-ribbons ' was a rock outcrop which 
seemed to me the first spot in the harbour whence the 
top of the piedmont ice could be reached if the bay ice 
went out. 
After supper we pulled on towards the Discovery Bluff. 
The surface improved somewhat and we started out for 
more relay work. We could sec Discovery Bluff" quite 
close, and after half a mile I judged we were half-way 
and went back for the second sledge. Then on again 
and it never seemed to get any nearer. Instead of half 
a mile it was two miles. Bringing up the second sledge 
was a weary grind. As Debenham said when we arrived, 
' We were too tired to think ! ' We got in about midnight 
and pitched camp on the tide crack. There was a young 
seal — still in its woolly coat — lamenting its mother's 
absence with great persistence. ^ Baa-aa ! ' it said, like 
VOL. II. R 
