14 shallow snow / firn cores were taken by drilling with the PICO lightweight hand coring auger on Law Dome and Wilkes Land along a line approximately 111 °E longitude between 66 °S and 74 °S latitude. 5 of these cores, BJ, LJ 24, GC 30, GC 40 and GC 46, 20 -30 m deep, are studied in detail in this paper. The densities of snow / firn were measured in a cold room at temperature between - 18 ℃ and -14 ℃ by taking consecutive core samples and weighing the mass of each sample whose volume was known. The characteristics of the initial densification (till a density of 550 kg /m³) including the variation of snow / firn density with increasing depth, densification rate of snow / firn and the compactive viscosity coefficient of snow / firn are studied, and the factors affecting this initial densification process are discussed. From the obtained measurements, a relationship between compactive viscosity coefficient of snow / firn and mean annual temperature is found in case ρ = 550 kg / m³. For snow / firm on Wilkes Land, the relationship we found at a mean annual temperature below - 25 ℃ (i. e. no melting features are present in stratigraphy) is very similar to that found by Nishimura and others (1983) on Mizuho Plateau, Antarctica.