Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
192
Figure 6.10. The faceted
cone of Mount Early stands
at the edge of the polar
plateau. In this view of
its eastern face, the drift
that Blackburn recorded
from the summit of Mount
Weaver runs off the
right side of the image.
Unknown to Blackburn at
that time was that Mount
Early is a volcanic cone
erupted beneath the ice
sheet, the world's south-
ernmost volcano.
Figure 6.11. Mount Howe
stands beyond the summit
of Mount Early like a wharf
at the edge of the great icy
sea. This is a view at about
the same angle, but closer
by about ten miles, to that
witnessed by Blackburn's
party from the summit of
Mount Weaver.
filled with the euphoria of such a place—the release from the sustained struggle, the at-
tainment, and the vista surpassing the visual.
Paine later wrote of the view:
The mountains which fringe the valley of Thorne [sic] Glacier stood in serried ranks,
like matched soldiers, the shorter in front with the bigger and huskier well back of the
front rank. The main escarpment of the plateau stood higher than the rest. It seemed
to form a background to the soaring granitic peaks nearer the main glacier, making
