1933.17.1

Collection type

Object

Description

Piece of sandstone resembling a long, curved axe with bevelled edge. [El.B 14/02/2008]

Geographical reference

Chile

Latin America and the Caribbean > South America > Chile

Tierra Del Fuego Straits of Magellan

Person

Field collector Gordon S. Gunn

Field collector HMS Alert

PRM source Donald Gunn

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1880

Date collected

3 February 1880

Acquisition information

Donated: 1933

Materials and processes

Material Sandstone Stone

Dimensions

Length: max 155 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1933.17.1

Research and responses

G.S. Gunn is probably Donald's brother, Gordon, who had joined the Royal Navy. A ship called the HMS Alert was used to conduct surveys in the Pacific, and in charting Canadian and Australian waters in the late 1870's/early 1880's. It is recorded as having been making observations of Pukapuka island in the Pacific in 1880, and surveying the Straights of Magellan and Patagonian coast in that same year (See A. Günther, 1881, "Account of the Zoological Collections Made During the Survey of H.M.S. 'Alert' in the Straits of Magellan and on the Coast of Patagonia", Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 2-141; http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/usque-ad-mare/chapter08-04_e.htm; http://www.janeresture.com/pukapuka/). G.S. Gunn is not listed amongst the crew of this ship immediately before that period, when it was used in arctic exploration in 1875 [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rcaville/crewlist.htm; RTS 7/9/2004].

Search terms: Geology, Specimen, Stone