MOUNT EREBUS. 
9 
Wilson has recorded five or six other steam-jets issuing from the north-east side, but 
from the ship it was unusual to distinguish more than two. Mount Erebus bears a 
very striking resemblance to Mount Etna as shown in von Waltershausen’s picture,* 
and is much more dome-like than is suggested by the published pictures of the better- 
known active volcanoes. 
Owing to the difficulty of access, few rock-specimens could be obtained from 
Mount Erebus itself. Specimens, however, were got from the following localities : 
(a) The Turk's Head, a bare cliff which rises sharply from the sea to a height of about 
300 feet on the south-west side of the mountain. Mr. Hodgson tells me that the tuffs 
O 
which build up this headland are exposed for a length of about 200 yards along the 
shore, are bedded, and dip to the north-west at an angle of nearly 40°. (b) Cape 
Royds , a promontory on the west side of Mount Erebus, having an area of about 
3 square miles. This area is bare of snow, and consists of dyke-outpourings of basalt 
with lenticular crystals 
of felspar (818) (leucite- 
kenyte, see p. 111). The 
Cape is rectangular in 
shape and displays many 
outstanding dykes which 
rise to heights of 200 and 
300 feet, but are now 
being rapidly disintegrated. 
A similar, but vesicular, 
rock (lava) (820) forms a 
small knoll, 1500 feet up 
this side of Mount Erebus, 
but, as the rest of the 
surface was covered with snow, no relations between these rocks could be made 
out. (c) Cape Barne, the bare rocks which lie about 3 miles south of Cape Royds 
and are separated from the latter by a shallow bay. The Cape consists of 
black vesicular basalt-lava (813) which dips to the west away from Mount Erebus. 
The extreme end of the Cape is a pinnacle rising 200 feet sheer from the sea, 
and is separated from the main mass of the Cape by a scree which prevents the 
junction of the vesicular rock and the basalt-agglomerate (815) of the pinnacle being 
seen, (d) The Skuary, an area of bare land, between Cape Barne and the Turk’s Head. 
This is about 2 square miles in extent, and except along the shore, where rock in situ 
is visible, is covered by moraines. The moraines include fine tuffs (808) and a compact, 
grey alkaline-basalt or kenyte (812) containing parallel lenticular crystals of felspar. 
Below them, and extending to the shore, vesicular glassy basalt- rock (811) of the same 
character is seen in situ. This last is over 100 feet thick, and appears to consist of 
* Scrope, ‘Volcanos,’ 2nd edit., 1862, p. 190, fig. 43. 
Fig. 4. — Castle Rock and Mount Erebus. 
YOL. I. 
c 
