400 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
retreating with comparative rapidity, and this leads us 
to account for the various ice slabs about the hut as 
remains of the glacier, but a puzzling fact confronts this 
proposition in the discovery of penguin feathers in the 
lower strata of ice in both ice caves. The shifting of 
levels in the morainic material would account for the 
drying up of some lakes and the terrace formations in 
others, whilst curious trenches in the ground arc obviously 
due to cracks in the ice beneath. We are now quite 
convinced that the queer cones on the Ramp arc merely 
the result of the weathering of big blocks of agglomerate. 
As weathering results they appear unique. We have not 
yet a satisfactory explanation of the broad roadway 
faults that traverse every small eminence in our immediate 
region. They must originate from the unequal weathering 
of lava flows, but it is difficult to imagine the process. 
The dip of the lavas on our Cape corresponds with that 
of the lavas of Inaccessible Island, and points to an 
eruptive centre to the south and not towards Erebus. 
Here is food for reflection for the geologists. 
The wind blew quite hard from the N.N.W. on Wednes- 
day night, fell calm in the day, and came from the S.E. 
with snow as we started to return from our walk ; there 
was a full blizzard by the time we reached the hut. 
