676 



NATURE 



[February 20, 191; 



Commander Evans's despatch is written in 

 popular lanijuage, and the resilKs cannot be judged 

 until the receipt of a more technical statement. 

 The difficulty of interpreting' the cablegram is 

 increased by some obvious verbal errors ; thus the 

 statement that in the volcanic series at Cape 

 Adare " there was found an agglomerate of erratic 

 bearing, many of the boulders being striated by ice 

 action," is unintelligible. If it means that the 

 old rocks there include a conglomerate of ice- 

 scratched boulders, the discovery would be of much 

 interest, especially if its age can be determined ; 

 it inay mean that the volcanic rocks include an 

 agglomerate, and that there is also a glacial 

 boulder bed. 



Commander Evans reports that the southern 

 party brought back 35 lb. of geological speci- 

 mens, which were apparently all collected from the 

 Beardmore Glacier. The report published shows 

 that this material confirms the conclusions based 

 on the specimens collected by Sir Ernest Shackle- 

 ton. His partv observed seven seams of coal in 



5. I. — F, Faults bounding the rr 

 sandstone. it a rt. Limestone 

 phyltum, Solenopora, etc. 



.unl.-iin Horsl. .1, Coal seams in beacon 

 breccia with Archeocyathiis. Ethmo- 



the cliffs at the head of the Beardmore Glacier : 

 one seam was 7 ft. thick, and four were each 

 3 ft. thick. The coal contained 69 per cent, of 

 tixed carbon, and the sample tested was non- 

 coking. The seams occur in the Beacon Sand- 

 stone, and the plant remains indicate that the age 

 of this formation is either Upper Palaeozoic or early 

 Mesozoic. The fossil plants obtained by Dr. 

 Wilson appear to be in better preservation, and it 

 is therefore interesting to find that they confirm the 

 age assigned to the Beacon Sandstone by Prof. 

 David and Mr. Priestly. The other fossils obtained 

 by the southern party are described as "corals of 

 a primitive form, typical of the early Palaeozoic 

 .Age." The Cambrian fossils obtained from the 

 same locality by Shacklcton include a coral allied 

 to Ethmophyllum, and specimens of Archceocya- 

 thus, Coscinocyathus, Solenopora, as well as 

 sponge spicules and traces of Radiolaria. The 

 accompanying section (Fig. i) from the report by 

 Priestly and David shows the relati\-e positions 

 of the Cambrian and coal-bearing formations. The 

 specimens of Cambrian limestones obtained by the 

 southern party will probably yield important addi- 

 tions to the small Cambrian fauna collected by 

 Sir E. Shackleton. 



The northern and western parties have both 

 been at work in areas of which preliminary surveys 



NO. 2260, VOL. 90"] 



have been made by the two previous expeditions, 

 and they will no doubt add materially to know- 

 ledge of the area. The recovery of Prof. Da\'id's 

 collection from Depot Island will probably enable 

 him to fill in further details to his work. 



Mr. Griffith Taylor, of the Australian Meteoro- 

 logical Service, who was geologist to the western 

 party, has examined a coal seam in the Beacon 

 Sandstone near Granite Harbour, while Mr. 

 Priestly has studied the same formation near 

 Mount Melbourne, and there obtained some large 

 stems of fossil wood. These new plant remains 

 should enable the age of the Beacon Sandstone 

 to be more definitely established. Prof. David 

 describes the formation as similar to the "Trias- 

 Jura " of Tasmania, but he regards the evidence 

 as only adequate to assign it to the Gond- 

 wana Formation ; and it may therefore be as 

 early as the Carboniferous or as late as the 

 Jurassic. 



The detailed survey by Mr. Priestly and Mr. 

 Taylor will no doubt be found to vield more new 

 information to the geology of South Victoria 

 Land than is implied by the dispatch. Their 

 work, for example, will probably settle the ques- 

 tion at issue between the two former expeditions 

 as to whether any of the granites are intrusive into 

 the Beacon Sandstone. 



It is also announced that the volcano rocks of 

 "Rock Island," clearly a misprint for Ross Island, 

 have been discovered to be older than was 

 thought. 



Mr. Priestly during the first season collected a 

 series of rocks from the Cape Adare district, which 

 was previoush' known from the collection ma^e by 

 the Southern Cross Expedition, and described by 

 Dr. Prior. Mr. Priestly also ascended Mount 

 Erebus by a different route from that followed by 

 Prof. David ; the lip of the crater was found to be 

 10,000 feet high, and the sledges were hauled to 

 the level of 9500 feet. The volcano was in " mild 

 eruption," and Mr. Gran was nearly suffocated by 

 its fumes. 



Mr. Griffith Taylor has measured the How of 

 the Mackay Glacier, and found that its rate is 

 80 ft. a month, a much lower speed than that of 

 some Greenland glaciers, and less than that esti- 

 mated for the Ross Barrier. With so competent 

 a physiographer as Mr. Taylor, valuable contribu- 

 tions to the glacial geology of the area may be 

 confidently expected. 



Commander Evans's report directs attention to 

 the interesting problem of former changes in the 

 Antarctic climate. As the rich fauna living in the 

 Ross Sea includes simple corals and sponges, the 

 fossils from the Cambrian limestones do not prove 

 any considerable change in the tetnperature of the 

 Antarctic seas. The fossil plants and coal seams 

 give stronger evidence than the fauna of climatic 

 change. It is interesting to know that the Ant- 

 arctic shared in the variations of climate proved 

 for the Arctic regions by their well-known plant 

 beds ; but the extent and nature of the climatic 

 change indicated by the Arctic fossil plants is still 

 ()r()blematical. 



