THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



south, in order that geological specimens might be 

 secured. The moraines, which were found by the 

 Discovery expedition, and are relics of the days of more 

 extensive glaciation, present a most varied collection 

 of rocks, representative of the geological conditions to 

 be found in the mountains to the west, and are of very 

 great interest on that account. After spending two 

 days at this spot, the party went back to Butter Point 

 with about 250 lb. of specimens, and camped again till 

 the 11th. Still there was no sign of the Northern Party, 

 and on the 12th they went north to Dry Valley. There 

 Priestley found a raised beach, about sixty feet above 

 sea-level, and Brocklehurst climbed the mountain known 

 as the Harbour Heights. 



Numerous fragments of Pecten Colbecki, the shell 

 at present common at Cape Royds, were found imbedded 

 in the sand as far up as sixty feet, and Priestley thought 

 that they would probably be found higher still. Writing 

 of the moraines at this point, he said: "In their chief 

 characteristics they are very similar to the stranded 

 moraines. Large patches of gravel are mixed with 

 boulders of every description and size, a chaos of 

 sedimentary, volcanic, plutonic, hypabyssal and meta- 

 morphic rocks, segmented by watercourses, which are 

 bordered by flats of gravel and spread out before reach- 

 ing the sea over large, alluvial, fan-shaped mudflats. 

 They differ from the stranded moraines in the presence 

 of numerous specimens of now existing shells, imbedded 

 in the gravel and sand of the moraines, but found in 

 most cases under any steep declivity in a stream's bed 

 where it has cut back through a gravel terrace. The 

 remarkable part of the preservation of these shells is 

 their extreme fragihty. Of Pecten Colbecki I have 

 seen thousands of specimens, and have secured many 

 whole single valves. Of the Anatsena so common at 



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