of granite
remained unchanged in the numerous exposures.

I had noticed a continuous rustling sound for some time and found at
length that it was caused by little streams of ice-crystals running
down the steep slopes in cascades, finally pouring out in piles on the
sea-ice. The partial thaw in the sunlight causes the semi-solid ice to
break up into separate grains. Sometimes whole areas of the surface, in
delicate equilibrium, would suddenly flow rapidly away.

For three miles we walked, and as the next four miles of visible coast
presented no extensive outcrops, we turned back for lunch.

During the afternoon, on the summit of the Point, it was found that an
uneven rocky area, about a quarter of a mile wide, ran backwards to the
ice-falls of the plateau. The surface was very broken and weathered,
covered in patches by abundant lichens and mosses. Fossicking round
in the gravel, Correll happened on some tiny insect-like mites living
amongst the moss or on the moist under side of slabs of stone. This set
us all insect-hunting. Alcohol was brought in a small bottle from the
tent, and into this they were swept in myriads with a camel's-hair
brush. From the vantage-point of a high rock in the neighbourhood the
long tongue of Mertz Glacier could be seen running away to the north.

At 8.30 A.M., on New Year's Eve, we set off for another line of rocks
about four miles away to the west. There were two masses forming an
angle in the ice-front and consisting of two main ridges rising to a
height of two hundred and fifty feet, running back into the ice-cap for
a mile, and divided by a small glacier.

This region was soon found to be a perfect menagerie of life. Seals lay
about dozing peacefully by the narrow lanes of water. Adelie penguins
strutted in procession up and down the little glacier. To reach his
rookery, a penguin would leap four feet on to a ledge of the ice-foot,
painfully pad up the glassy slope and then awkwardly scale the rocks
until he came to a level of one hundred and fifty feet. Here he took
over the care of a chick or an egg, while the other bird went to fish.
Skua gulls flew about, continually molesting the rookeries. One area of
the rocks was covered by a luxuriant growth of green moss covering guano
and littered skeletons--the site of a deserted rookery.

Correll and I went up to where the ridges converged, selecting numerous
specimens of rock and mineral and finding thousands of small red mites
in t