CAMBRIAN STRATA 297 



into only a fraction of their former horizontal extent. Further, 

 the present directions of these folds tell us that the pressure came 

 in a direction parallel to the Equator, the axes of the folds being 

 nearly on a north and south line. However, with the opening of 

 Cambrian times a well-marked period in the earth's later his- 

 tory the southern portion of our area was again below the sea, 

 for in the Beardmore region we find beds of black limestone con- 

 taining fossils of corals and of a primitive sponge-coral called 

 Archasocyathus. The northern portion of Victoria Land was 

 still probably dry land. The limestone is of unknown thickness, 

 but its character tells us something. From its purity we can argue 

 a clear though comparatively shallow sea, while from a number 

 of limestone breccias found, we know that after consolidation it 

 was broken up in places by earth-movements, or even volcanic 

 eruptions, and afterwards re-cemented again. But after this 

 period of deposition the land again emerged from the sea, and 

 no legible record is found until much later. A record of a some- 

 what illegible kind exists in a comprehensive series of granites 

 which occur in profusion along the whole of the present coast- 

 line. These are of infinite variety, and probably belong to many 

 ages, but the majority seem to have been intruded after the 

 Cambrian limestone and before the next succeeding strata. They 

 were doubtless connected with the uplift of the whole region. 

 In their intrusion through the pre-Cambrian schists they tore 

 away and even assimilated huge blocks of schist and gneiss, which 

 exist to-day as enclosures in the granite. 



At the end of Palaeozoic, or beginning of Mesozoic times 

 that is, somewhat later than when the great coal-measures of 

 England were being formed the whole of the Victoria Land 

 region became an area of deposition of a very interesting kind. 

 For belonging to this period we find a very well-marked series 

 of rocks, named by Mr. Ferrar of the Discovery Expedition the 

 Beacon Sandstone. 



In the district visited by him, the Royal Society Range, the 

 series is composed mainly of a dense sandstone with thin beds 

 of shale, and is at least 2000 ft. thick. Farther to the north the 

 series is represented by a similar sandstone, but associated with 

 beds of coral, shale, and limestone. In the Beardmore district 

 it appears as limestone, calcareous sandstone, beds of coal, and 

 shale. There can be little doubt that these all represent de- 



