"The site of the Bay of Whales, formerly a deep indentation in the face of the Ross Ice barrier, presented a weird display of ice formations resembling fortifications with towers and battlements. Completing this impression of the ruins of another civilization was the discovery of man-made objects such as fuel drums and strips of canvas exposed or hanging from the face of the ice shelf and marking the settlement known as Little America III dating from 1939. Once some miles from the open water, this part of the past, perfectly preserved, has moved seaward with time and next year will join the fleet of great tabular icebergs that drift always eastward around the continent. Annual visitors to the ice face from the north are the dazzling snow petrels." --Commander Standish Backus