In the Antarctic the sea ice is usually covered with a relatively heavy snow cover; snowfree areas are rare, amounting to less than 1% of the area of fast ice, and being almost nonexistent on pack ice. Observations made duringVladivostok'svoyage allowed the author to compile a table of snow depths on the basis of the age‐class of the sea ice, with depths varying from 5–10 cm onnilasto 40–100 cm on multiyear ice. The author rejects the 3‐part scale of snow depths conventionally used thus far because, having been developed in the Arctic, he believes it to be inappropriate for the antarctic situation. Instead he proposes an alternative antarctic scale of snow depths (also 3‐part) which takes into account the common antarctic phenomenon of flooding of the ice leading to slush formation.