Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
64
Figure 2.16. Hummocky,
dissected, morainal depos-
its pattern the foreground,
leading back to the east-
ern end of Lake Bonney.
Scott's party hiked along
the southern (left) side of
the lake. He recorded that
as they reached the end
of the lake they quite sud-
denly “stepped out on to
a long stretch, which here
and there opened out into
small, shallow lakes quite
free of ice.” This is the area
crossed by the meandering
stream that flows into Lake
Bonney. It was on this flu-
vial deposit that the party
lunched, dipped water
from the stream, and felt
the warmth of the dry sand
draining through their
fingers. Meltwater for this
stream is coming from the
toe of Matterhorn Glacier,
on the right side of the pic-
ture, and a hanging glacier
out of sight to the left.
lobe, three or four miles long. Scott was like a hound on the scent that day, striding for-
ward around the lake. When everyone reached its end, he kept right on going along the
sandy outwash that was being cut by a meandering stream feeding the frozen lake from
the east (Fig. 2.16). Evans made an oblique query of Scott whether they needed to carry
the lunches any farther, and the commander suddenly realized that it was well into the af-
ternoon. They stopped for lunch: pemmican, chocolate, sugar, and biscuit, washed down
with water dipped from the stream in their shared tin measuring cup. They sat in wonder
on a bar of dark sand, sifting its grainy warmth through their bare hands, pondering the
improbability of such a balmy pocket existing in this otherwise ice-bound land.
Scott declared that he would like to glimpse the sea through the lower end of the val-
ley, so the party pushed on in that direction across a hummocky moraine field. When it
became clear that the valley narrowed into a deep gorge farther to the east, the best pos-
sibility for a view seemed to be from the large shoulder that rose to the middle level of the
valley farther on. It was a steep, long climb onto the shoulder (today known as Nussbaum
Riegel), but once they reached its crest, the view down the valley was blocked by yet an-
other shoulder five miles beyond. It was 4:00 P.M. They had been out for eight hours.
Time now to turn back to camp. It would be an uphill slog all the way, but the party hit
a cadenced rhythm and, ruminating on the wonders they had seen that day, made it back
to camp by 10:00 P.M.
The next day, December 19, the party ascended the north arm, and by December 20
had reached the depot at Cathedral Rocks. The next five days were uneventful as they
