90 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Certain features in our general oceanic sounding work, however, deserve attention in this report, 

 and among these are the recently discovered bank in the latitude of 42° S, close to the Greenwich 

 meridian, and a series of soundings in the Ross Sea. We should also mention the soundings on the 

 Kerguelen-Gaussberg Ridge. 



DISCOVERY BANK 



(Text-fig. 19) 

 The Discovery Bank was first located by the ' Discovery IT in May 1936. It was then crossed from 

 north to south after a sounding of 560 fm. (1024 m.) had been reported in a position 41 ° 50' S, 00° 01 7' E. 

 This comparatively shallow sounding followed a depth of 2287 fm. (4182 m.) obtained about 17 miles 

 to the north. Soundings were then taken more frequently and a bank of less than 1000 m. (547 fm.) 

 in depth was traced to the south for some 30 miles, the minimum depth obtained being 367 fm. (671 m.) 

 in 42° 05' S, 00° 06-2' E. Later in the same year a good line of soundings was obtained with the 

 recorder 14 miles east of the previous line. In the following year only one sounding, of 628 fm. (i 148 m.), 

 was obtained on the Bank, 



The repeated cruises made by the ' Discovery II ' to the south and west of Cape Town in 1938 and 

 1939 (see p. 85) presented further opportunities to obtain soundings on this bank. On the seven 

 cruises which comprised this series the bank was crossed from north to south on five occasions and an 

 attempt was made to run a line of soundings from west to east, to obtain evidence of the probable 

 existence of two peaks, separated by moderately deep water. Unfortunately, bad weather prevented 

 the completion of this line, but reference to Text-fig. 19 will show that a north to south line run 

 subsequently leaves little doubt that two such peaks do exist. On the seventh cruise a line of soundings 

 was attempted from north to south, in the longitude of 02° 30' E, and, although soundings could not 

 be obtained underway, conditions were such that any depths of less than 1000 fm. (1828 m.) should 

 have been recorded. 



The Discovery Bank lies in a stormy latitude and conditions are usually a severe hindrance to echo 

 sounding. In consequence there are some unavoidable gaps in our lines of soundings but despite the 

 adverse conditions agreement between the various lines was generally good. 



Within a few weeks of our final run across the bank, the German ship ' Schwabenland ', on her 

 passage north from the ice barrier, obtained a series of soundings on the Discovery Bank, almost on 

 the meridian of Greenwich. Through the courtesy of the Hydrographer of the Navy we have now 

 obtained a list of these soundings, but unfortunately the positions given for the soundings in the 

 critical area are noted by the ship as not being entirely reliable, on account of bad weather. When 

 plotted, these soundings are not in agreement with our line of May 1936, which lies in approximately 

 the same longitude, but from a close examination of all the available data it is probable that, on account 

 of bad weather, our positions at this time are also not fully reliable, and that south of latitude 41° 30' S 

 our line should be plotted from 2 to 4 miles to the west of the position now shown. It seems likely 

 that the positions given for the ' Schwabenland ' soundings, between the latitudes of 43° S and 41° 30' S, 

 are some 3 to 4 miles north of their true position. Displacement to the west of our soundings and to 

 the south for the German observations would bring these results into line with the remainder of our 

 work on the bank but, with the exception of increasing slightly the north to south dimension of the 

 area less than 500 m. (273 fm.) in depth, to conform to that determined by the ' Schwabenland ', 

 there would be little to be gained by moving our line, especially as we lack the necessary data from 

 the ship's log-book to check further on the ' Schwabenland 's' positions. 



In Text-fig. 19, which has therefore been compiled from our soundings only, the actual depths are 

 not given but the positions of the soundings are shown as dots. In most instances the contours, which 



