ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE AND RESEARCH 



the Beardmore Glacier right across to the Weddell Sea, 

 It contains Devonian fish, Permian ferns and probably 

 Triassic tree remains. No further deposits of impor- 

 tance occur in the MacMurdo region, though there are 

 many eruptive rocks which will be described later. 



On the American side of Antarctica in the vicinity of 

 Snow Hill, there are basal rocks of granite and gneiss 

 which are capped by Jurassic shales and sandstones 

 containing many fossil plants. Above these are ma- 

 rine Cretaceous beds, and lower Miocene sediments 

 with fossil penguins and fossil leaves of trees allied 

 to the beech and giant conifers (Sequoia) of Cali- 

 fornia. In this same richly endowed district are late 

 Pliocene conglomerates containing Pectens and other 

 fossil shells. 



Detailed Geology in East Antarctica 



Metamorphic Rocks. — H. T. Ferrar showed in 

 1 90 1 -4 that the coast line of South Victoria Land from 

 Granite Harbor to the Koettlitz Glacier consisted of 

 a foundation series of metamorphic rocks. Towards 

 the plateau the great glacial valleys rise so rapidly that 

 the basal rocks are soon hidden beneath the later sedi- 

 mentary and igneous rocks. No good junctions of 

 metamorphic and later sedimentary rocks have been 

 observed. To the south of New Harbor the meta- 

 morphics form the tops of hills at five thousand feet, 

 but to the northward their summits appear to be about 

 one thousand feet above sea level. They are older 

 than the granites, for fragments are often included in 

 the latter. (See Figure 8.) 



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