velled depends upon the weight of food that can be
carried. During the geological journey on the western side of the Sound,
Taylor and his party had carried out much useful geological work in Dry
Valley and on the Ferrar and Koettlitz Glaciers, which had been
accurately plotted for the charts, and had been examined for the first
time by an expert physiographer and ice specialist. The ordinary routine
of scientific and meteorological observations usual with all Scott's
sledging parties was observed.

Further, at Cape Evans there had been running for more than three months
a scientific station, which rivalled in thoroughness and exactitude any
other such station in the world. I hope that later a more detailed
account may be given of this continuous series of observations, some of
them demanding the most complex mechanism, and all of them watched over
by enthusiastic experts. It must here suffice to say that we who on our
return saw for the first time the hut and its annexes completely equipped
were amazed; though perhaps the gadget which appealed most to us at first
was the electric apparatus by which the cook, whose invention it was,
controlled the rising of his excellent bread.

Glad as we were to find it all and to enjoy the food, bath and comfort
which it offered, we had no illusions about Cape Evans itself. It is
uninteresting, as only a low-lying spit of black lava covered for the
most part with snow, and swept constantly by high winds and drift, can be
uninteresting. The kenyte lava of which it is formed is a remarkable
rock, and is found in few parts of the world: but when you have seen one
bit of kenyte you have seen all. Unlike the spacious and lofty Hut Point
Peninsula, thirteen miles to the south, it has no outstanding hills and
craters; no landmarks such as Castle Rock. Unlike the broad folds of Cape
Royds, six miles to the north, it has none of the rambling walks and
varied lakes, in which is found most of the limited plant life which
exists in these latitudes, and though a few McCormick skuas meet here,
there is no nursery of penguins such as that which makes Cape Royds so
attractive in summer. Nor has the Great Ice Sheet, which reached up
Erebus and spread over the Ross Sea in the past, spilled over Cape Evans
in its retreat a wealth of foreign granites, dolerites, porphyrys and
sandstone such as cover the otherwise dull surface round Shackleton's old
Winter Quarters.

Cape Evans is a low lava flow jutti