The cliffs are of dazzling
whiteness, with wonderful blue shadows. Far inland higher slopes can be
seen, appearing like dim blue or faint golden fleecy clouds. These
distant slopes have increased in nearness and clearness as we have come
to the south-west, while the barrier cliffs here are higher and
apparently firmer. We are now close to the junction with Luitpold
Land. At this southern end of the Caird Coast the ice-sheet,
undulating over the hidden and imprisoned land, is bursting down a
steep slope in tremendous glaciers, bristling with ridges and spikes of
ice and seamed by thousands of crevasses. Along the whole length of
the coast we have seen no bare land or rock. Not as much as a solitary
nunatak has appeared to relieve the surface of ice and snow. But the
upward sweep of the ice-slopes towards the horizon and the ridges,
terraces, and crevasses that appear as the ice approaches the sea tell
of the hills and valleys that lie below."
The 'Endurance' lay under the lee of the stranded berg until 7 a.m. on
January 18. The gale had moderated by that time, and we proceeded
under sail to the south-west through a lane that had opened along the
glacier-front. We skirted the glacier till 9.30 a.m., when it ended in
two bays, open to the north-west but sheltered by stranded bergs to the
west.
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