SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 



would myself have declared both that the Solitary Rocks 

 were an island, that there were two islands off the south- 

 eastern end of them, and that in all probability they were 

 of Beacon sandstone, all three of which suppositions were 

 made by the Discovery sledge-parties, and aU three of 

 which eventually turned out to be incorrect. 



On the other hand, even from here the lowest three or 

 four thousand feet of the Obelisk Range, marked on the 

 map as Beacon sandstone, looked much more like the 

 granite bluff under which we were camped, and I was 

 more than ever anxious to examine it as closely as possible. 



It was at this date that Army t age informed me that 

 he was afraid his orders would not allow us to reach the 

 Depot Nunatak as he was due to meet the Northern Party 

 at Butter Point on January 3, and as that removed my 

 chance of getting fossils from the carbonaceous bands 

 which occur in the sandstone of the nunatak, I 

 determined to give fuller attention to that lobe of the 

 glacier we were now entering and to examine the Obelisk 

 Range, if possible, and the Solitary Rocks, together with 

 the islands off them. 



We therefore broke camp on the 21st and reached the 

 north wall of the glacier late in the afternoon, but found 

 ourselves cut off from the cliff exposure as the ice ter- 

 minated in a sheer precipice between two and three hun- 

 dred feet high and with a considerable and swift river 

 running at the bottom. It was, however, possible from 

 where we were to see the grain of the coarser varieties of 

 the rock, and I had no hesitation whatever, even then, in 

 naming it in my diary as a similar granite, with intrusions 

 of a dark green porphyry, to that seen in the Kukri Hills. 



On continuing round the lobe of the glacier, the next 

 big fact which forced itself on my recognition was that 

 the Solitary Rocks were not islands, but were connected 



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