PUEFACE xi 



Petrologlcally the rocks of the Ross Sea region constitute a distuict province. The 

 reports by oar colleagues, published in the second half of this Memoir, make it clear that 

 the region has been a province for alkaline rocks from Palaeozoic time. The relation of 

 these rocks to one another, that of the alkaline granites to the vast sills of dolerite, and 

 the latter to the great variety of effusive rocks produced by Erebus and adjacent vol- 

 canoes ; and the relations of the products of eruption of the smaller parasitic cones to 

 those of the parent cones present pi'oblems of unique interest. Biologically the degla- 

 ciated region of Cape Royds with its glacially-formed lakes has proved most interesting 

 on account of the rich harvest of various forms of microscopic life, especially Rotifera and 

 Tardigi^ada, already described by our colleague James Murray in the biological memoirs 

 of our exj^edition. The occurrence of beds of algal peat on the floors of some of these 

 lakes has furnished material for analysis and for notes given later in this volume. 



Palreontologically Antarctica is proving a veritable treasure-house. To a lower 

 Cambrian fauna, contained in as yet almost untouched massive limestone, must now 

 be added the Devonian rocks, with the fossil fish plates discovered by F. Debenham 

 andT. Griffith Taylor on Scott's last expedition at Granite Harbour. These Old Red 

 Sandstone fish are shortly to be described by Dr. A. S. Woodward. Most fascinating 

 also are the many problems presented by the vastly extensive, horizontally bedded 

 coal measures and their associated fossil flora. This great field extends certainly 

 from at least as far south as the Beardmore Glacier, in 85° S., to certain nunatakker 

 recently discovered by Madigan's party, on the Mawson Expedition, to the east of 

 Adelie Land near the Antarctic circle, a distance of at least 1300 miles. The seven 

 coal seams discovered by F. Wild and Sir Ernest Shackleton, together with fossil wood 

 and rootlets, proved for the first time that the " Beacon Sandstone " of IT. T. Ferrar 

 is a coal-bearing formation and that trees formerly flourished there, within 5° of the 

 South Pole, in an area which is now in almost total darkness for five months in the 

 year. Asa result of a preliminary examination of the fossil plants, so heroically 

 carried by Captain Scott and his comrades to the very end of their terrible journey, 

 Mr. Debenham has stated * that he considers them to be of Upper Palaeozoic Age. 

 A detailed report of these plant remains is about to be published in connection with 

 the Scientific Report of the Scott Expedition 1910-1913. 



So far no trace of the Jurassic strata, like those of Hope Bay, from which 

 J. Gunnar Andersson and Dr. Nordenskjold reaped the rich harvest of fossil plants, 

 which have been described by Nathorst, has been discovered in East Antarctica. 

 Neither has any evidence been found there of the extensive marine cretaceous strata 

 developed in West Antarctica at James Ross Island, Cockburn Island, and Snow Hill 

 Island ; nor again of the Oligocene or Lower Miocene strata, like those of Seymour 

 Island, from which Nordenskjold obtained bones of penguin and leaves like those of 

 Fagus and Sequoia. The Pliocene Pecten Conglomerates of Cockburn Island also 

 appear to be wanting in East Antarctica. 



* " Scott's Last Expedition," vol. ii. p. VM. 



