812 MR D. FERGUSON ON 



coast near New Fortune Bay. The rocks, moreover, have been greatly crumpled and 

 contorted along the north-eastern coast, especially at King Edward's Cove, Cumber- 

 land Bay ; Leith Harbour ; Stromness Bay ; and Possession Bay. The direction of 

 thrust is from the north-east. 



Professor J. W. Gregory has kindly examined the fossils brought home by the 

 writer from South Georgia. The fossils recognisable by the naked eye were found 

 with one exception in the beach rocks, where Leith Harbour turns round into Nansen 

 Harbour. The one exception was found in the beach rocks, King Edward's Point, 

 Cumberland Bay, and was apparently a fucoid, similar to those found at Leith 

 Harbour. The whole of the fossils were obtained from the lower division of the 

 Cumberland Bay Series. That specimens may be obtained in the same division in 

 other parts of the island is highly probable. Leith Harbour was well searched, 

 because it was near the writer's headquarters and easily accessible. 



The finding of an ammonite in the middle division of the Cumberland Bay Series 

 in Port Gladstone, Possession Bay, by the German Antarctic Expedition is very 

 important. Owing to the kindness of Dr Heim, the writer was privileged to see the 

 specimen, which was sent over to Glasgow from Heidelberg. 



The Geological Age of the Rocks of South Georgia. 



The precise age in geological time of the rocks of South Georgia is still indefinite. 

 The Falkland Islands are for the larger part of Devonian rocks, which appear to be 

 younger than those of South Georgia. The rocks of the South Orkneys, from the 

 few fossils found in them by Dr Bruce's Expedition, are either Ordovician or 

 Silurian, and they are strikingly similar to those of the Cumberland Bay Series, 

 which form the main mass of South Georgia. 



The writer obtained in South Georgia, through the courtesy of the manager of 

 the Falkland Whaling Company, ten samples of the rocks of Washington Strait, 

 Coronation Island, South Orkneys. They are very similar to those of South Georgia, 

 which was also noted by Dr Harvey Pirie, # geologist to the Scotia Antarctic Ex- 

 pedition, who saw them in the Geological Department, Glasgow University. 



The lithological resemblance between the rocks of the South Orkneys and South 

 Georgia is no certain proof that they are of the same geological age, but, taking all 

 the facts into consideration, the lower rocks of South Georgia would appear to be 

 not later than Silurian, and may be even earlier. The palseontological evidence 

 examined by Professor Gregory suggests that the middle and upper divisions of the 

 Cumberland Bay Series are Mesozoic, while the lower division is Ordovician or 

 Silurian. The marked lithological resemblance of the rocks of the lower division to 

 the graptolite-bearing rocks of the South Orkneys suggests that both of them may 

 be of Palaeozoic age. 



* J. H. Harvey Pirie, Rep. Sci. Res. " Hcotia,'' vol. viii, part 3, and Rroc. Roy. Hoc. Edin., vol. xxv, pp 463-470. 



