39 
Chapter VI. 
THE BEACON SANDSTONE FORMATION. 
The existence of fossiliferous sedimentary rocks in South Victoria Land lias been 
considered probable ever since H.M.S. ‘Challenger’ dredged up sandstones, limestones 
and shales* in a high southern latitude, but as it was thought that the coastal belt 
of the land was composed entirely f of volcanic rocks, there was little to encourage 
the hope that fossiliferous strata would be met with in the course of the ‘ Discovery ’ 
Expedition. 
In dredging off Coulman Island several small fragments of a white granular 
quartz-grit were brought up, and when just south of the conical Mount Melbourne a 
tabular mountain, Mount Nansen, was seen, our hopes of finding sandstone were raised 
to a very high pitch. This mountain showed well-marked horizontal structure, and steep 
scarp-slopes which vividly recalled Table Mountain at Cape Town in South Africa. 
Further south, in about latitude 75° 57', many tabular hills with black caps could 
be seen fronting the sea, and the possibility of such tabular mountains being composed 
of plateau-basalt had to be considered. However, when the ‘ Discovery ’ anchored on 
the south extremity of Ross Island, the Western Mountains (the Royal Society Range 
of our present nomenclature) were seen to be made up of differently coloured horizontal 
bands which run from end to end of the ran ire. These rock-belts are well brought 
out in some of the photographs, and at a distance of 50 miles the contrasts of colour 
were more obvious than in any of the photographs taken close at hand. 
Lieut. A. B. Armitage’s pioneer-journey through these mountains proved that 
horizontal structure and plateau-features are extremely constant. The specimens 
(628, 630, 639-642) he brought back included a sandstone which is somewhat like 
the Millstone Grit of the top of Ingleborough in Yorkshire, and suggested the 
probability of the existence of fossiliferous sediments in the district. 
Lieut. Armitage reported that the sandstones attained a height of nearly 8000 feet 
and were accessible at a spot 60 miles inland on the very edge of the Inland-ice. The 
photographs taken by Lieut. R. W. Skelton on this journey (Fig. 19) showed that the 
sandstone has a marked effect on the scenery, and the name Beacon Sandstone Forma- 
tion, which I propose to give to the deposit, is derived from the remarkable mountains 
IL and B 4 to which Lieut. Armitage has given the name Beacon Heights. 
Accordingly Captain Scott arranged that I should go with him as far as the 
edge of the Inland-ice and do as much geological work as was possible on the return 
* Murray, Geol. Mag., Dec. IV, 1898, vol. v, p. 270 ; Prior, Mineralogieal Magazine, 1899, vol. xii, 
p. 81, note. 
t Gregory, ‘Nature,’ 1901, vol. lxiii, p. 609. 
