Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/282

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THE WESTERN JOURNEYS

By Griffith Taylor, B.A. B.Sc., B.E. F.G.S.

[See Folding Map, p. 290; and The Birdseye Views, pp. 420, 422, 425.]

CHAPTER I

KOETTLITZ, FERRAR, AND TAYLOR GLACIERS

The following chapters describe the doings of six members of the Expedition during a detailed exploration of the 'Western Mountains' in South Victoria Land. A few words as to the scene of our operations and the personnel of the parties will serve as an introduction to the narrative of the sledge journeys.

As you stand on Cape Evans with your back to the steam cloud of Erebus you see across McMurdo Sound a glorious range of mountains running due north and south and rising to 13,000 feet in the south-west. These are the Western Mountains. Their southern limit is the extinct volcanic cone of Discovery, and far to the north one can follow the same range of snow-clad peaks until it merges with the grey line of the horizon. Beyond this grey line was Granite Harbour (76° 50′), and that marked the northern limit of our survey; while the Koettlitz Glacier (in 78° 20′), which hid the lower slopes of Discovery,

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