OTHER SOUNDING WORK 235 



for by the 'Valdivia' in 1898, the 'Meteor' in 1926 and the 'Norvegia' in 1928, the 

 'Meteor' obtaining a sounding of 1580 m. on one of its supposed positions. The 

 'Norvegia', as we learn from Bjarne Aagard.i spent a number of days in searching for 

 the island both to the east and west of Bouvet Island, and she appears to have covered 

 a considerable part of the area which we ourselves examined: this, however, was not 

 known to us at the time. It is to be hoped that a chart showing the track of the 'Nor- 

 vegia', and the soundings obtained, will soon be published. 



When the 'Discovery 11' searched unsuccessfully for the island in October 1930, we 

 were largely guided as to the area to be searched by the latest information supplied 

 by the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty, which gave particulars of all 

 previous searches and the area which might still be regarded as unexamined. The 

 ' Discovery II ' was very fortunate in having fine clear weather which made it possible 

 to fix the ship's position at frequent intervals, but a rough sea made echo sounding 

 difficult and only twenty-five soundings were obtained. The area examined was over 

 3000 square miles, as can be seen from Fig. 5. This figure also shows the limit of visibility 

 from the crow's nest, and the results indicate that although a definite plateau exists to 

 the north-eastward of Bouvet Island, there is no indication in this area of either Thomp- 

 son Island or the Chimneys. The soundings obtained near the charted position of the 

 island by the ' Discovery II ' were 1538 and 1629 m., which agree very closely with the 

 'Meteor's' sounding of 1580 m. As a resuh of the latest search these islands have been 

 removed from the British Admiralty Charts and Sailing Directions (see Admiralty 

 Notice to Mariners No. 406 of 193 1). 



The following instance is an example of the means by which dangers and shoals come 

 to be reported without careful examination : When the ' Discovery II ' was in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the South Sandwich Deep in November 1930, a shoal of approximately 

 200 fathoms was reported by a whaling factory ship from a position where we had found 

 considerably deeper water. On asking for further details we were informed that this 

 depth had been obtained by one of their catchers after harpooning a whale, as the line 

 had run out vertically downwards for 200 fathoms and then had suddenly become 

 slack. 



' Bjarne Aagard, Fangst og Forskning i Sydishavet, pp. 626-37, Oslo (1930). 



