After some discussion, Mawson and Mackay agreed to try this expedient, and we decided to think over the matter for a few days and then make our depot-. In pursuing our north-westerly course we presently passed a magnificent bay, which trended westwards some five or six miles away from the course we were steering. On either side of this bay were majestic ranges of rocky mountains, parted from one another at the head of the bay by an immense glacier with steep ice falls. On either side of this glacier were high terraces of rock reaching back for several miles from a modern valley edge to the foot of still higher ranges. It was obvious that these terraces marked the position of the floor of the old valley at a time when the glacier ice was several thousand feet higher and some ten miles wider than it was when we saw it. We longed to explore these inland rocks, but time was too precious. Later on we discovered that the point opposite which we had arrived was really Granite Harbour, and that its position was not correctly shewn on the chart. By the night of October 29 we were all thoroughly done up after completing our four miles of relay work, and we discussed the important question whether it was possible to eke out our food supplies with seal-meat so as to avoid putting ourselves on half-rations, and we all agreed that this should be done. The chief problem in connection with the seal-meat was how to cook it without the aid of paraffin oil, for we could not afford paraffin for that purpose. On the next day we tried the experiment of strengthening the brew of the tea by using the old tea-leaves of a previous meal mixed with the new ones--an idea of Mackay's which Mawson and I did not appreciate at first, though later on we were glad enough to adopt it. By this time the weather had become warmer, and consequently the saline snow on the sea-ice was sticky, and gripped the runners of the sledges like glue. Only by the greatest exertion could we drag the sledges along even at a snail's pace. But although we were thoroughly exhausted when we camped on the evening of the 30th, our evening meal revived us so much that we walked over to a small island about three-quarters of a mile distant, which turned out to be a truly wonderful place for a geologist and a perfect paradise for the mineralogist. On this island, which we afterwards called Depot Island, Mawson discovered a translucent brown mineral, which was proved to be titanium mineral. CHAPTER XXXVI ACROSS THE ICE BARRIER