Dr Donald, who sailed on board the “Active” in the voyage of 1892–3, has given a short account of the discovery of a number of fossils by Captain Larsen on Seymour Island, to the north of Snow Hill, in January 1893 (Geographical Journal, vol. ii. p. 438, 1893). Some of these fossils were sent to Professor James Geikie, and at his request we gave an account of them to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, June 4, 1894 (Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxxvii. p. 707; see also Dr Murray, Geog. Journ., vol. iii. p. 11, note, 1894). The fossils do not appear to have been found in situ. Captain Larsen reports of the locality “that he found no traces of vegetation there, the surface being formed of volcanic débris and numbers of these fossils” (Dr Donald's notice, p. 438, loc. cit.).

The condition of the fossils, however, would seem to indicate that the mother rock from which they were derived could not be at any great distance from the spot where they were picked up.

As the few species of Mollusca represented by these fossils seemed to us to find their nearest allies among Lower Tertiary forms, and to be near to certain species known from Patagonia (Darwin, Geol. Obs. Sth. Am., 1846), we were led to conclude that these new discoveries indicated the occurrence of Lower Tertiary rocks in Seymour Island.