THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



hills and of the granite hill of Mount Hope, and the 

 nunatak of coal-bearing Beacon sandstone further south 

 is shown in the photograph. 



At Cape Royds we found occasionally, but sparingly, 

 erratics of radiolarian chert. The radiolaria appear to be 

 of older palseozoic type, but we were unable to discover 

 any rock like it in situ. Obviously at Cape Royds the 

 erratics have travelled from some spot to the south and 

 west. It is possible that these black and grey cherts 

 belong to the limestone series discovered by the Southern 

 Party in 85° 15' South. This limestone varies in colour 

 from pink to dark grey. The pink limestone is banded 

 with some dull green earthy mineral ; it contains numerous 

 obscure casts resembling those of radiolaria. The dark 

 bluish grey portion of this limestone does not show any 

 trace of organisms. Apparently it has been too much 

 metamorphosed to retain the outlines of any of its original 

 fossils. It is traversed in all directions by veins of white 

 calcite. The limestones appear to be almost horizontally 

 bedded, and are several hundreds of feet in thickness. 

 The Southern Party were unable to determine the relation 

 of this massive limestone to the adjacent Beacon sand- 

 stone, as unfortunately there was a break in the con- 

 tinuity of the section which prevented the junction of 

 these two formations being seen. This limestone, 7000 

 ft. above sea-level, is higher geographically than the 

 Beacon sandstone formation, but as the latter dips away 

 from it towards the north-east, the limestone may be 

 strati graphically below the Beacon sandstone. The 

 Southern Party discovered large blocks of limestone 

 breccia in the moraines near " The Cloudmaker." The 

 fragments in the morainic breccias near this mountain are 

 formed of limestones, not unlike those of the great nuna- 

 tak, but whether these breccias belong to the basal beds of 

 the Beacon sandstone formation, or to the base of the 



312 



