Notes on some Specimens of Rocks from the Antarctic Regions

Extract

Towards the end of the year 1893, I received from Captain Thomas Robertson of Dundee, master of the steamship “Active,” a number of specimens of rocks which he had collected in the Antarctic regions during a sealing expedition. In letters to me he gave the following particulars regarding these specimens:—“They were all taken from one place in Dundee Island. We had not time to land and take specimens from other parts. Dundee Island, so named by me, is a separate piece of land, close to Joinville Island, and all the stones I sent you were picked up on a beach at its south-west end. I had a boat sealing on Joinville Island, but they brought no specimens of rock on board. The round flat piece of light-coloured granite I broke off a piece the size of a man's head, the day I sent off the box to you. The small piece of blue basaltic rock I broke off at the same time, not to make the box too heavy. You have all the others as they were found. The southwest end of Dundee Island is a long low point which I named ‘Welchness.’ There are high cliffs up from the ness, from which the pieces of granite could have come, or they might have been carried by the ice.