An 
222 Cyrus C. Babb—Geographic Notes. 
D’Urville, at Adélie land, found a precipitous shore, with ele- 
vations from 2,009 to 3,000 feet. The rocks of the neighboring 
islands were granites and eneisses. Wilkes found on an iceberg 
in the same vicinity large bowlders of red sandstone and basalt, 
with smaller gravels, stones, clays and mud. The dredgings of 
the Challenger produced from the great ocean basins volcanic 
débris, but as the Antarctic continent was approached quartz and 
granite fragments were found, and in the highest latitudes reached 
the dredgings consisted mainly of fragments of diorites, granites, 
mica schists, sandstones, limestones, and earthy shales. 
In the reports of the expeditions previous to those of the Dun- 
dee and Norwegian whalers the rocks of the islands to the south 
of cape Horn are described as of volcanic origin. Dr Bruce, of 
the Balena, reports the finding of metamorphic and sedimentary 
rocks in his soundings. 
Captain Larsen, of the ship Jason, as above stated, collected 
from Seymour island during his first trip, in 1892, a number of 
fossils which have been determined as belonging to the lower 
tertiary. In November of the next year he landed on the same 
island, but at a different place, and says: 
When we were a quarter of a Norwegian mile from shore and stood 
about 300 feet above the sea the petrified wood became more and more 
frequent, and we took several specimens, which looked as if they were of 
deciduous trees ; the bark and branches, as also the year rings, were seen 
in the logs which lay slanting in the soil. The wood seemed not to have 
been thrown out of the water; on the contrary, it could never have been 
in the water, because, in the first case, we found petrified worms, while 
there were none in the second. At other places we saw balls made of 
sand and cement resting upon pillars composed of the same constituents. 
. . The beach is flat and consists of white sand. 
It would seem, therefore, that Antarctica was a true conti- 
nental area, having the fundamental continental gneiss, with 
later fossil-bearing sandstones and limestones. 
The primary object of Ross’s expedition was for the purpose 
of making magnetic observations, and in this he was very suc- 
cessful, sailing to within 160 miles of the south magnetic pole. 
He furnished more trustworthy evidence on the meteorological 
and magnetic conditions of Antarctica than all the preceding 
and succeeding expeditions put together. 
At the time of the reading by Dr Murray of his valuable paper 
before the Royal Geographical Society, Dr Neumayer, a German 
scientist, contributed an article showing the desirability, even the 
