THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



are strewn with erratics * These are formed of whitish 

 garnet-bearing gneiss, a darker biotite-gneiss, mica-schist, 

 fragments of red quartzite, &c. The crystalline rocks are 

 considered to be probably of Archaean age. 



In the Victoria Land region of the Antarctic the re- 

 searches of Ross, Borchgrevink, and above all of Captain 

 R. F. Scott and the geologist of the Discovery expedition, 

 H. T. Ferrar, prove that there is developed in that region 

 an ancient complex of gneisses and gneissic granites, with 

 mica-schists, caic-schists and quartzites, and that these 

 rocks are capped for a great distance by a formation 

 almost horizontally bedded, called by Ferrar the " Beacon 

 sandstone." A little argillaceous limestone was observed 

 by him associated with this sandstone. Ferrar found 

 plant remains in the sandstone, but in such an altered 

 condition that they could not be determined. Ferrar has 

 given a detailed and very valuable description of the 

 geology of Victoria Land and Ross Island explored by 

 him on this expedition. The petrology of the rocks col- 

 lected has been worked out by ,G. T. Prior. f 



Amongst volcanic rocks are comprised hornblende- 

 basalts, olivine-basalts, dolerites, basalt tuffs, kenytes, 

 phonolitic trachytes and phonolites. Ajuongst the founda- 

 tion rocks of South Victoria Land, Prior records crystal- 

 line limestones with chondrodite, gneiss, granites, diorites, 

 camptonites, kersantites and banakite. Amongst the 

 sedimentary rocks* he refers to sandstones, somewhat 

 carbonaceous, as well as black shaly to slaty rocks. 



The volcanic rocks, as pointed out by Prior, are closely 

 allied in chemical composition and mineral constitution 



/ 



* Veroffentlicliungen des Instituts fiir Meereskunde und des Geo- 

 graphischen Instituts an der Universitat, Berlin. Heft. 5 Octr. 1903. 

 Deutsche Siidpolar-Expedition auf dem SchifF " Gauss." 



t National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1904, Natural History, Vol. 

 i.. Geology. British Museum, 1902. 



280 



