82 Notices of Memoirs— E. T. Mellor— 



as forming the ancient platform on which the central part of South 

 Victoria Land is built. The foot-hills of the Royal Society Eange 

 and the lower portions of the Cathedral Rocks are composed of this 

 class of rock. 



(ii) The Granites have been encountered at the north end of the 

 Royal Society Range, where they rest upon gneisses, and dykes of 

 granite pierce the gneissic series. At Granite Harbour this type 

 of rock is found as a huge boss, and is probably covered by a sheet 

 of dolerite. Where the Ferrar Glacier forks, a junction of dolerite 

 and granite proves that tliere are two distinct developments of 

 granite, one older and one younger than a certain sheet of dolerite. 



(iii) Tlie Beacon Sandstone Formation is met with at a height 

 of 4,000 feet above sea-level, and about 40 miles from the sea. It 

 appears to be nearly 3,000 feet thick, and near the top indeterminable 

 fossil plants were found. The bedding is practically horizontal, and 

 the rock is remarkably uniform in texture. The surface upon which 

 it rests has not yet been discovered. 



(iv) The Dolerite Sheets produce the plateau features characteristic 

 of that rock, and cap the sandstone over a very large area. Dykes, 

 sills, and pipes of the dolerite occur in the sandstone, and prove Che 

 former to be intrusive. The original dolerite plateaux have been 

 dissected by water action, apparently prior to the faulting which 

 has dislocated the Beacon Sandstone. 



IV. The Ice. Sea-ice, produced by the freezing of the sea during 

 the Winter, is on an average 8^ feet thick, but during the Summer 

 the sea-water melts the lower surface of the ice. Shore-ice, a fringe 

 of glacier ice attached to the land, shows the conservative action of 

 ice in this latitude. Inland ice, local ice-caps, piedmonts, and other 

 types of glaciers may be recognised in South Victoria Land. The 

 term ' floating piedmont ' has been suggested as descriptive of the 

 Great Ice Barrier, or Ice Sheet, of Ross, and there are at least three 

 examples in our area. 



The moraines high on the slopes of Mount Erebus, and other 

 moraines stranded at various spots, are considered in their relation 

 to the past and present distribution of the ice, and the conclusion 

 arrived at is that the glaciation is approaching a minimum. 



IV. EVIDBNOES OF GlACIAL CONDITIONS IN PeRMO-CaKBONIFEROUS 



Times in the Transvaal. By Edward T. Mellor, B.Sc. 



[Communicated by permission of the Director of the Geological Survey of the 

 Transvaal.] 



THE present paper gives a brief account of recent work in 

 connection with the rocks at the base of the Karroo System 

 in the Transvaal, including some additions to the evidence of 

 extensive glacial action in early Karroo times. The description 

 given of the character and mode of occurrence of the glacial 

 conglomerate is based mainly upon observations made in the course 

 of mapping a district lying between the Elands and Wilge Rivers, 

 east of Pretoria. The Karroo System does not here attain so 



