2i8 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



adjacent islands in the group, and one of the main reasons for crossing here was the lack 

 of soundings between them. We had obtained a few soundings between the remaining 

 islands during the 1930 survey, although at that time the oceanic echo-sounding machine 

 was not giving the excellent results obtained in the following season. These soundings, 

 however, were sufficient to show that the remaining islands are almost certainly con- 

 nected by a submarine ridge, so that if there were any discontinuity, it could only be 

 found here. As will be seen from Fig 4 o, which is a section of the Scotia Sea from west 

 to east, this 193 1 line of soundings shows a gradual rise from the west towards the 

 connecting ridge between Saunders Island and the Candlemas Islands, the shallowest 

 sounding being 2185 m. On the eastern side of the group there is a very sharp drop to 

 8000 m. in the Deep. We continued this line of soundings along the 57th parallel of 

 latitude to approximately 23° W longitude. At this point we turned back and ran our 

 second line in a north-westerly direction, crossing the line of the islands again some 

 40 miles north of Zavodovski Island in about 28° W longitude. Both these traverses 

 confirmed the existence of the Deep as a very narrow trench, with a width of about 

 20 miles at the deepest part and having very steep sides below the 5000 m. level. While 

 carrying out this examination of the Deep in 193 1 we were unfortunate in having un- 

 suitable weather for echo sounding ; it was almost always necessary to stop for soundings 

 over 4000 m. and water noises made it difficult to hear the echo from over 7000 m. We 

 were able, however, to get thirty-eight soundings over 6000 m. on the two lines, and these 

 in conjunction with the echo soundings taken at the northern end of the Deep in 1930 

 gave us altogether forty-three soundings over 6000 m. Of these, twenty-seven were over 

 7000 m. and two over 8000 m., the deepest sounding being 8102 m. on the north- 

 westerly profile in a position approximately 56° 33 S, 24° 33' W (see Chart 4). 



The northern end of the South Sandwich Deep can be traced by means of the 5000 m. 

 contour, to a position about 50 miles east of the Clerke Rocks. Several of the 

 soundings which determine this contour were taken by the 'Deutschland' in 1911-12 

 and the ' Meteor' in 1926. All the remaining soundings have been obtained by the ships 

 of the Discovery Committee and are mainly echo soundings from the ' Discovery 11'. 

 The southern end of the South Sandwich Deep, south of latitude 57', still remains to be 

 determined, but during the season 193 1-2 the ' Discovery IF obtained soundings of over 

 5000 m. east and south-east of the southern extremity of the South Sandwich Group, 

 and it is possible that these may represent the limits of the Deep in this direction. 



It is of interest to note here that a preliminary comparison of a few of our results in 

 this area with those of the ' Meteor', has already been made by Stocks. ^ The ' Discovery' 



1 Stocks, Zcif. Ges. Erdk. Berlin, pp. 299 ct seq. (1931). 



Since this report was written, Stocks has published another brief paper (Der Sudantillen-Bogen im 

 Lichte neurerer Erkundungen, Zeit. Ges. Erdk. Berlin, 1932, Nr. 5/6) on the South Antillean Arc, which 

 appears to be based very largely on soundings taken by the vessels of the Discovery Committee, and recently 

 published in the Admiralty charts for the area. In this paper, which has perhaps been hastily written, the 

 following conclusions, which are not borne out by our recent work, are advanced: 



(i) It is stated that soundings show that the probable continuation of the Patagonian Shelf towards South 



