DEPTHS AND DEPOSITS OF THE WEDDELL SEA. 
785 
basalt also occurred, and a rock which was provisionally classed as a peridotite. On 
other occasions grit (both red and green), shale, and pebbles of hard mud were 
obtained. The shales were generally marked with glacial striae. On all these 
occasions the glacial mud which formed the bulk of the sample was extremely sandy. 
Among the material collected, two rock types only could be called common, namely, 
grey granite and grits, grey to green in colour. Some of the sediments recalled the 
Beacon Sandstone of Victoria Land in general appearance, but they were never 
sufficiently distinctive types to warrant one in saying definitely that Coats Land 
geologically resembles the lands east of the Ross Sea. 
The remainder of the dredgings were made farther out from land; but there is 
every reason for saying that here, as well as nearer Coats Land, the source of th‘e 
material was to the east. This conclusion is founded on the clockwise motion of the 
Weddell Sea ice, proved by the Deutschland and Endurance drifts. Among these 
later dredgings shale, quartzite, and green grit -were the commonest rocks ; grit 
particularly was very common. On March 26,. 1915, in 76° 27' S., 38° 43' W., the. 
haul was remarkable for including a red grit boulder weighing over 70 lbs., and a 
block of limestone (with fossils) about half that weight. Another block of similar 
limestone was brought up not ten miles away a few days later. The specimens 
have, of course, been lost, but it is quite possible that two of them represent the 
Archseocyathus Lst. of Cambrian age, previously known from Victoria Land and 
from a Scotia dredging in 62° 10' S., 41° 20' W. Other sediments identified were 
oolitic limestone, white and dark-grey quartzite, arkose (noted as being fairly 
common), banded shale, spotted shale, and chert. Of igneous rocks there was a 
considerable variety. Granite, although a hornblende variety with red felspar is 
noted more than once, was never so abundant as farther east. Dolerite, however, 
was common. Peridotite appears again, also pitchstone, porphyrite, and quartz 
felsite ; diorite and basalt sometimes occurred, but not often. On one occasion a 
fragment possibly of tuff was obtained, but its identification was apparently a matter 
of doubt. Metamorphic rocks were represented by gneiss, garnetiferous gneiss, and 
mica-schist. None of the igneous or metamorphic rocks, however, occurred in 
quantity at all comparable to grey grit and white quartzite. 
On the whole the data are insufficient for determining whether Coats Land is 
geologically similar to Victoria Land or to Graham Land. The balance of probability 
has always been in favour of the former alternative. The Endurance observations, 
however, do not bring the problem any nearer solution, but they have certainly 
produced nothing to render it improbable that Coats Land, like Victoria Land, 
belongs to the plateau type of Antarctica. 
Bathymetrical Results. 
Previous bathymetrical maps of this area have in two instances put down 
hypothetical contours over the region explored by the Endurance. Bruce on the 
