Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
183
they climbed, the wind direction shifted from south to east. Again the party was faced
with high longitudinal pressure ridges on the glacier and numerous crevasses transverse
to its flow. Travel was tedious, but most of the crevasses had bridges filled to the bottom.
By 1:00 P.M. the party had traveled eleven miles. The wind was becoming so unbearable
that the men decided to pitch camp, feeling as they did that they had come through the
worst of the crevasses. That day they had stopped on ice north of the confluence of Scott
and Robison Glaciers (Fig. 6.7; see Fig. 6.2).
The evening's scheduled radio contact brought a long message from Little America
advising them to quit the place where they were and to proceed to the vicinity of 85° S,
115° E, a distance of about two hundred miles as the skua flies, “to get some information
on the connection between East and West Antarctica.” In the time-honored tradition of
the independent field party, Paine failed to acknowledge receipt of message.
Here the men were, within striking distance of the sedimentary strata, each day
bringing its own fresh wonders. Visible for the first time this afternoon on the east side
of Scott Glacier was a lofty ridge that climbed up from the granite spurs at glacier level.
Flat-topped and massive, its crest was capped by a brown sill of dolerite above a thick
section of sandstone and shale. To reach these rocks, perched as they were high above
the glacier, would require at best a long and steep approach over the granites. Tonight to
the southwest, however, small, dome-shaped mountains barely marring the horizon ap-
peared from this vantage to arise from the surface of the glacier. There would be the place
for sedimentary rocks to be had. No chance the party was going to abandon its course to
check on the connection between East and West Antarctica. From that last, low roll in
the south, the men were destined to discover the southernmost rocks on the planet.
The following morning, December 4, the southeasterly winds were again bearing
down at twenty to thirty knots and the temperature had slipped to minus 1° F. Except for
ground drift the air was clear. The party lay in for the morning, but restless to be moving,
the men turned out at noon into the teeth of the wind. In all they made thirteen miles
that day, over large pressure swells along the northwest portion of the La Gorce Moun-
tains, stopping to make camp near the end of the long spur running north from Mount
Gjersten (see Fig. 6.7). On clear ice nestled in among boulders of a scant moraine, the
Figure 6.7. (overleaf) On December 3 the party camped at the confluence of the Scott and Robison
Glaciers, seen in the small curl of flowlines in the glacier at the left rear. Mount Gardiner is the dark
shoulder on the right (west) side of the glacier. Dominating the left half of the horizon are the La
Gorce Mountains. The following afternoon, under heavy winds, the party moved thirteen miles
farther along, camping near the end of the spur leading toward the viewer from the highest central
peak in the La Gorce Mountains. The next day, uncertain of a passage through the rolling icefalls
that stand out between the La Gorce Mountains and the two nunataks in midstream, Blackburn and
Paine went out on skis to scout a route. They found a passage that cut south-southwest across the
glacier, ending at a small, tabular outcrop, Mount Wilber, seen to the right of the summit of Mount
Gardiner. Two days later, December 6, the party was camped at the base of Mount Wilber, and from
there moved over to Mount Weaver, whose eastern spur shows slightly at the edge of the image.
Mount Howe, the southernmost rock on earth, is the faint, tabular outcropping at the horizon,
framed by the two small nunataks in midstream.
