GEOLOGY 397 



tions of these expeditions, South Victoria Land consists of a vast, 

 ancient complex of crystalline schists and granitic rocks, large 

 extents of which are covered by a sandstone formation ("Beacon 

 Sandstone," Ferrar), on the whole horizontally bedded, which is at 

 least 1,500 feet thick, and in which Shackleton found seams of 

 coal and fossil wood (a coniferous tree) . This, as It belongs to the 

 Upper Devonian or Lower Carboniferous, determines a lower limit 

 for the age of the sandstone formation. Shackleton also found in 

 lat. 85° 15' S. beds of limestone, which he regards as under- 

 lying and being older than the sandstone. In the limestone, which 

 is also on the whole horizontally bedded, only radiolaria have 

 been found. The limestone is probably of older Palaeozoic age 

 (? Silurian). It is, therefore, tolerably certain that the underlying 

 older formation of gneisses, crystalline schists and granites, etc., is 

 of Archaean age, and belongs to the foundation rocks. 



Volcanic rocks are only found along the coast of Ross Sea and 

 on a range of islands parallel to the coast. Shackleton did not 

 find volcanic rocks on his ascent from the Barrier on his route 

 towards the South Pole. 



G. T. Prior, who has described the rocks collected by Scott's 

 expedition, gives the following as belonging to the complex of 

 foundation rocks: gneisses, granites, diorites, banatites, and other 

 eruptive rocks, as well as crystalline limestone, with chondrodite. 

 Professor David and R. Priestley, the geologists of Shackleton's 

 expedition, refer to Ferrar's and Prior's description of the founda- 

 tion rocks, and state that according to their own investigations the 

 foundation rocks consist of banded gneiss, gnelssic granite, grano- 

 diorite, and diorlte rich in sphene, besides coarse crystalline lime- 

 stone as enclosures in the gneiss. 



This list of the most important rocks belonging to the foundation 

 series of the parts of South Victoria Land already explored agrees 

 so closely with the rocks from Mount Betty and Scott's Nunatak, 

 that there can be no doubt that the latter also belong to the 

 foundation rocks. 



