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massive crystals in the ice — at times so as to show 
the orientation of the crystals on the surface. 
Probably the most beautiful form of crystal, and 
certainly the most distinctive one, was to be found in huge 
masses in all crevasses. Single crystals measured up 
to 2 inches across, and were built in the form of hollow 
pyramids. 
Glaciers 
It is, however, when in the form of glaciers that one 
appreciates to the full the power of ' the mighty molecule ' : 
huge valleys, 5, 10, 20, 30, even 50 miles wide, filled with 
moving ice, cut by this ice from the solid rock to a 
depth of thousands of feet— huge streams of ice moving 
by virtue of their own enormous weight at a rate of 
30 feet a year even in the most dormant glaciers. 
Hundreds of glaciers representing every type are to 
be found along the stretch of shore from Cape Adare 
to the Beardmore Glacier ; some, like the Ferrar and 
Beardmore Glaciers, accommodating the outflow from the 
great ice plateau 9000 to 11,000 feet high, others flow- 
ing from local neve fields, and others little more than 
consolidated snow-drifts. 
Owing to the fact that the ' snow-line ' is at sea level, 
a very large proportion of the glaciers terminate in the 
sea and discharge bergs from their seaward faces as do 
many Greenland glaciers. More than this, however, the 
Antarctic glaciers, instead of coming to an end where 
they rest on the sea bottom, often preserve their entities 
as glaciers or streams of ice while projecting many miles 
