234 STRATIGRAPHY 



end of this volume by A. B. Walkom, possibly should be referred to this Pre- 

 Cambrian crystalline series. Professor Woolnough has also described several 

 varieties of Pre- Cambrian rocks amongst the erratics of Cape Eoyds. These he 

 characterises as actinolite-gneiss, actinolite-schist, tremolite-schist, and quartz-schist ; 

 the last mentioned may not be as old as Pre-Cambrian, but may possibly be referred 

 to one of the Cambrian limestones replaced by silica. In his description of some of 

 the rocks brought back by the Southern Party from the neighbourhood of the 

 Beardmore Glacier Valley Mawson includes several gneissic specimens (either meta- 

 granites or meta-arkoses of the composition of granite). 



As described by Ferrar and Prior, the crystalline limestones, which seem to 

 constitute the prevailing rock of the northern and southern foothills, occupy a belt 

 along the coastal platform and foothills to the east of the Koyal Society Range for 

 a distance of about 40 miles south of New Harbour. Amongst these Prior records 



Epidote rock and 

 calc-schists. Calcite. 



I Calcite. 



Graphite 

 calc-schists. 



White granite and 

 ' f garnetiferous aplile. 



Schists with 

 tourmaline and 

 epidote. (?) 



•Scqit 



fr<t 



Fig. 61. Section of Pre-Oambrian (?) rocks at Cape Bernacchi 



the occurrence of a crystalline limestone with chondrodite. The specimen occurred 

 as a fragment found by Dr. Wilson along Discovery Gulf near the mouth of the 

 Koettlitz Glacier. There is therefore every probability that a foundation complex 

 of Pre-Cambrian rock extends from at least as far north as Granite Harbour to at 

 least as far south as the Koettlitz Glacier, a total distance of over 90 miles from 

 north to south ; the width of the belt is probably not less than 50 miles. 



The reason why we assume provisionally the age of these rocks to be Pre- 

 Cambrian is that, as will presently be .shown, limestone breccias were found at the 

 Beardmore Glacier containing fragments of fossiliferous Cambrian limestone, and 

 these pieces of limestone show very little sign of serious alteration. It is therefore 

 assumed that the graphitic saccharoidal marbles, with their associated schists, 

 gneisses, pegmatites, and aplites, are perhaps much older. The limestone fragments 

 above referred to contain well-preserved embryonic forms, referred by Mr. T. 

 Griffith Taylor to the Archceocyathince, and also dendroid organisms which Mr. 

 F. Chapman considers to be allied to Soleno2:)era. This entire series may therefore 



