The outer or Northern edge of this immence Ice field was compose[d] of loose or broken ice so close packed together that nothing could enter it; about a mile in began the field ice, in one compact solid boddy and seemed to increase in height as you traced it to the South; In this field we counted Ninety Seven Ice Hills or Mountains, many of them vastly large . . . From Captain Cook’s journal, January 1774 FOSSIL BLUFF lies about 230 miles from Rothera on the east coast of Alexander Island. A group of men from the British Graham Land Expedition were the first to set foot there; they surveyed it roughly in 1936 and found Jurassic fossils, so they called it Fossil Camp. Lancelot Fleming, a member of the expedition who later became Bishop of Norwich, made a cine film which, fifty years later, was put on video with a narration by another member, the redoubtable Duncan Carse. Carse had gone on to be a successful actor, playing Dick Barton in the 1940s BBC radio series. He has a mellifluous voice made for a piece of film which perfectly captures the lost innocence of a golden age.
