CHAPTER VII. 

 CAPE HUNTER. 



Sir Douglas Mawson has supplied the following notes on Cape Hunter, as the result 

 of his visit on December 22nd, 1913 : 



" The rock exposure forming Cape Hunter is quite an imposing sight at close 

 quarters (Plate XXXIII. , fig. 2). The coastline is steep, and the rocks extend as a 

 narrow belt, elongated in the direction of foliation. The rock itself is a phyllite, very 

 uniform in character, but may pass into distinct sericite schists ; narrow bands here and 

 there are a little talcose. Representatives of similar rocks have been collected from the 

 moraines at Cape Denison. The foliation and bedding closely correspond, wherever 

 examined. The foliation is vertical and trends N. 20 W. Jointing along nearly 

 horizontal planes is prominent. Weathering has developed gullyways at right angles 

 and across the trend of the rocks. 



' The maximum height of the exposure is about 90ft. The top has a rounded 

 hummocky surface which has been once polished and striated. Where the polish and 

 striae have been preserved the trend of striae is N. 45 E. to N. 40 E. 



" The prevailing schist contains, in some places, a notable amount of iron ore finely 

 disseminated. In other places talc is found or quartz is prominent, and along some 

 bands considerable puckering is noticeable. Along the foliation stringers of quartz 

 are common ; and with the quartz are crystals of hematite, magnetite (?), epidote, 

 chlorite, garnet (?), etc. Some veins carrying much epidote and a little fluorite cross 

 the foliation and bedding of the phyllite. 



" Compared with Cape Denison there is a noticeable paucity of erratics at Cape 

 Hunter. A few of these, especially a grey gneiss erratic and a red granite erratic, are 

 several tons in weight. The following rock types were noted among the erratics : 

 Red granite, grey granite, both coarse and fine-grained red porphyries, red gneiss and grey 

 gneiss, garnet gneiss, a gabbroic rock, a dolerite or basalt, red sandstone (one specimen 

 only). There is a complete absence of representatives of the metamorphic silicated 

 limestones." 



Specimen No. 911 is an example of the Cape Hunter rock, and it is a very fine grained, 

 highly schistose rock with a bright sheen on the cleavage surface. In section there is a 

 prominent crystallisation schistosity, and the structure is both finely granoblastic 

 and blastopelitic. 



