PREFACE TO VOLUME I. 
The mineral-specimens collected during the ‘ Discovery ’ Antarctic Expedition being 
virtually all of them rock-specimens, their importance depends, not merely on their 
own characters, but on the mutual relations of the masses which they represent ; in 
these circumstances, a Report descriptive of the specimens themselves can be of little 
scientific value unless preceded by an account of the rock-masses of which they have 
formed part. 
Mr. II. T. Ferrar, Geologist to the Expedition, had lived in the region and 
collected nearly all the specimens, and was obviously the one to be invited to 
prepare a monograph of the Field-geology. Fortunately he was able to accept the 
invitation, and to submit the manuscript of his Report before leaving England to take 
up an appointment on the Geological Survey of Egypt. 
The scientific description of the specimens was entrusted to Dr. G. T. Prior, 
Assistant in the Mineral Department, who had already examined and described 
the mineral-specimens collected during the ‘ Ross ’ and the ‘ Southern Cross ’ 
Antarctic Expeditions. 
The points regarded by the authors as deserving special attention are con- 
veniently indicated in the respective Summaries (pp. 98, 139). 
The elaborate Index to the volume has been made by Dr. Prior. 
It has been my duty, as Keeper of the Mineral Department, to supervise the 
preparation and publication of these Reports, but the scientific part of the work has 
been done entirely by the respective authors. 
Mineral Department, 
British Museum (Natural History), 
May 1 , 1907 . 
L. Fletcher. 
