246 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION Pecember 
our depot. Wc then hurried down the cliff and went out 
to sL^y another seal. We had a difficult time trying 
to pack the hide, bhibber, and liver on the sledge. The 
rounded portions ran about all over the sledge. Gran 
swears they worked their way up hill and came out of the 
folds of skin in which we tied them. 
I threw some bits of meat into the ' shear crack ' while 
washing the liver, and the water was soon full of 
amphipods. These arc humble relations of the shrimps, 
and Gran declared his intention of trying for bigger 
' fish ' here if ]ie could make a hook. However, we never 
liad time to test this food supply. 
On the 4th I decided to climb the Bluff. First we 
skirted low cliffs, below which were large ^ joint-channels ' 
in the granite with carpets of thick fungus-like moss. 
These were green underneath, but the tufts were still black, 
contracted and dryish. Then over crags to a slope of 
talus debris in wliich I found a large frondose lichen about 
8 inches across with well-developed branches and pseudo- 
roots. We got to the top in an hour, and our doubts 
as to the height were justified. The Rendezvous Bluff 
was sixteen hundred feet high instead of 500 as we 
expected ! 
We got a magnificent view of Granite Harbour and 
its hinterland. 
Far U) the east Erebus was wholly visible, while to the 
west we could see the great ice plateau. Right out to sea 
was Beaufort Island, and there was no open water near 
the harbour. Closer was the cluster of fifteen bergs near 
