THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



snow being encountered where ice had been expected. 

 On December 19 they were held up by a bhzzard, and 

 then they got on to very shppery crevassed ice. On 

 December 20 they camped near the Sohtary Rocks, 

 at the spot at which Captain Scott had camped after 

 leaving Dry Valley. The idea of getting to Depot 

 Nunatak had to be almndoned, for a heavy snowfall 

 made the travelling difficult, and the time at the dis- 

 posal of the expedition was short. Priestley worked 

 under the BlufF between Dry Valley and the east fork 

 of the glacier without success, and then they moved 

 over to Obelisk Mount. " I have examined block after 

 block of unfossiliferous-looking sandstone without any 

 success," wrote Priestley in his diary on the evening of 

 the 21st. " The only thing I can find different from 

 the ordinary quartz grains are a few seams of conglom- 

 erate with quartz pebbles, and a few lenticles of a 

 soft clayey substance. The other rock I have collected 

 here is a junction between granite and porphyry, which 

 is common. The sandstone is very weathered, dropping 

 to pieces in many cases at a single blow. I am faced 

 with the necessity of examining for fossils rocks which 

 I should carefully avoid if I were at home or anywhere 

 else. I have never seen a sedimentary rock that looked 

 more unfossiliferous. Many of the boulders are coated 

 with a hard crust of white, opaque salt (probably calcium 

 carbonate), and if there was ever any lime in the sand- 

 stone it has probably been dissolved out long ago. 

 There are numerous interesting rocks about here, but I 

 am debarred from collecting much by the difficulty of 

 transport. . . . There are evidently serious defects 

 in the map near this point. The whole of the bluff 

 opposite is marked as Beacon sandstone, and from the 

 face of the cliff here it is easily seen, for at least 3000 

 feet, to be granite; the very grain in the stones can 



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