19"] 
THE DEBRIS CONES 
395 
to a flag and staff, which it is hoped will plant itself in the 
snow on falling. 
The sun is shining into the hut windows — already 
sunbeams rest on the opposite walls. 
I have mentioned the curious cones which are the 
conspicuous feature of our Ramp scenery — they stand 
from 8 to 20 feet in height, some irregular, but a number 
quite perfectly conical in outline. To-day Taylor and 
Gran took pick and crowbar and started to dig into one 
of the smaller ones. After removing a certain amount of 
loose rubble they came on solid rock, kenyte, having two 
or three irregular cracks traversing the exposed surface. 
It was only with great trouble they removed one or two 
of the smallest fragments severed by these cracks. There 
was no sign of ice. This gives a great ' leg up ' to the 
• debris ' cone theory. 
Demetri and Clissold took two small teams of dogs to 
Cape Royds to-day. They found some dog footprints 
near the hut, but think these were not made by Julick. 
Demetri points far to the west as the scene of that animal's 
adventures. Parties from C. Royds always bring a num- 
ber of illustrated papers which must have been brought 
down by the Nimrod on her last visit. The ostensible 
object is to provide amusement for our Russian companions, 
but as a matter of fact everyone finds them interesting. 
Tuesday, August 29. — I find that the card of the 
sunshine recorder showed an hour and a half's burn 
yesterday and was very faintly marked on Saturday ; 
already, therefore, the sun has given us warmth, even if 
it can only be measured instrumcntally. 
