GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SOUTH GEORGIA. 801 



indented that boats are frequently transported overland from one coast to the 

 other. 



Dr Otto Nordenskjold * states that the general features of the South Georgian 

 landscape are similar to those of Spitsbergen. Mountains and fiords follow each 

 other in the same way, but the fells of South Georgia rise from the coast in most 

 places precipitously to almost inaccessible ridges. He describes this island, situated 

 in lat. 54° S., as having glaciers as large as those of Spitsbergen, in lat. 80° N. He 

 found traces everywhere in Mai Viken, Cumberland Bay, of a former ice-covering with 

 morainic gravel, and beautifully striated stones, which proved that an immense mass 

 of ice had once filled the entire valley. During a visit he paid in 1902 to Moraine 

 Fiord in Cumberland Bay, he discovered the first fossil found in South Georgia, 

 imbedded in an enormous block of stone. 



K. Fricker t in his account of South Georgia adopts the view that it is connected 

 with the Cordilleras of South America and with the South Sandwich Islands. He 

 considers the outline, the narrow extended form, and the deep fiords prove the fact 

 that in South Georgia we have a portion of a broken and submerged mountain chain. 

 He quotes the geological features described by Hans Thurach, the geologist of the 

 German Meteorological Expedition of 1882. Near Royal Bay the rocks are clay 

 slates, alternating with phyllite gneiss, upon which follows clay slate, alternating 

 with quartz slate, and he says that huge banks of shale or diabase-tuff and sandstone 

 occur near the Weddell Glacier. 



Dr Fritz Heim,} geologist to the German Antarctic Expedition (191 1), led by 

 Lieut. Filchner, states that the rocks at Eoyal Bay are chiefly phyllites, schists, 

 and tuffs (?) of unknown age, and that the rocks have a north-west and south-east 

 strike and a southerly dip. According to his observations, the entire north coast, 

 with the exception of Royal Bay and part of Cumberland Bay, appears to be built 

 up of interstratified dark-grey to bluish-grey schists and greenish tuffs. The rocks 

 of Royal Bay are of different appearance from all seen on the north coast, and also 

 from those in the inlets east of Royal Bay. He considers, despite the scanty obser- 

 vations yet made, that South Georgia is a folded mountain chain, the general strike 

 of the folds probably coinciding with the strike of the island. Volcanic rocks were 

 discovered from Novosilski Bay round to Drygalski Fiord on the south-east end of 

 the island. In Larsen Harbour pebbles of crystalline rock of dioritic habit were 

 found ; and at Slosarczyk Fiord, everywhere in the moraines, numerous blocks of acid 

 rock of granitic type occurred. He gives a qualified support to the view that South 

 Georgia is allied to the Patagonian Cordilleras. 



* Otto Nordenskjold, Antarctica, p. 340; and "Die schwedische Sudpolar Exped. und ihre geographische 

 Tatigkeit," IVissensch. Ergeb. schwedisch. sudpolar -Exp., 1901-03, 1, i, 1911, p. 211. 



t K. Fricker, The Antarctic Regions, 1900. 



X Fritz Heim, " Geologische Beobachtungen iiber Siid-Georgien," GeoJogie der deutschen Antarktischen Expedi- 

 tion, Zeit. Ges. Erd., Berlin, 1912, No. 6, pp. 451-6. 



