HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS 297 



weather had every appearance of being bad. I found, on sounding, the place we thought would do, 

 that the bottom was all rocks, and, consequently, unsafe; but we discovered another point that 

 offered better: to this we proceeded, and found a safe and commodious harbour. I sounded it al' 

 over, and found from 30 to 14 fathoms, good clay bottom, and capable of containing a number of 

 vessels. Here you may be sheltered from all winds; for the most part the harbour is composed of 

 perpendicular icebergs. At about nine or ten yards from high-water-mark, the beach, under these 

 icebergs, is mostly of sand: this I named Spence's Harbour, and having found it a safe one, I re- 

 turned to the vessel. The James Monroe being in-shore of the Dove, I had to pass her, and told 

 Captain Palmer to proceed in, for the harbour was perfectly safe: the vessels were now under the 

 high land, and had lost all the wind; we therefore found it requisite to tow them into the harbour. 

 At 5 p.m. we anchored in 14 fathoms water, clay bottom. The middle and latter part of these twenty- 

 four hours, we had hard gales and thick snow; the wind we could perceive, by the clouds, to be 

 S.W.; but where we lay at anchor, the flaws set down in all directions, owing to the high land that 

 surrounded us; the icebergs fell a great deal, but did not incommode us at our anchorage. 



By the evening of the 9th, then, both vessels having successfully coasted the northern 

 side of Coronation Island, with the approach of bad M^eather had found shelter on the 

 western side of Lewthwaite Strait in what appears to have been a commodious and ad- 

 mirably situated harbour. To the few who are acquainted with the South Orkneys, 

 Powell's description of Spence's Harbour may sound a somewhat generous one. At all 

 events, more than eighty years after its discovery, the 'Scotia', while searching for a 

 haven in which to pass the winter in 1903, found it to be "ridiculously exposed, with 

 very deep water ".^ We must bear in mind, however, that Powell's description was 

 written more than a hundred years ago and in that time considerable alteration may have 

 been wrought in the shape and even the depth of the harbour through changes in the 

 position, or breaking up of the ice-clifl's with which it once seems to have been almost 

 encompassed. Dumont D'Urville, who visited the group in 1838, appears to have been 

 strongly attracted by this possibility and remarks on it at some length. 



II est encore indubitable [he writes] que le degre plus ou moins avance de la fonte generale des 

 glaces doit faire subir aux accidents de la cote des modifications sans nombre. Ainsi, tout trace du 

 littoral opere sur ces terres, tant qu'elles sont encore ensevelies sous les neiges, ne pent etre definitif 

 at ne sera relatif qu'a I'epoque meme ou il aura ete execute. C'est a ce motif que j'attribuai des-lors 

 les differences surprenantes que je remarquais entre les formes des terres indiquees sur la carte 

 grossiere de Weddell et celles qui se representaient a mes regards. - 



In seeking for a further explanation of the obvious change that has taken place in 

 the character of Spence's Harbour we should not perhaps disregard altogether the fact 

 that the South Orkneys are notoriously infested by barrier icebergs, and that the pre- 

 sence of such obstacles lying stranded across the entrance of an otherwise exposed bay, 

 would considerably enhance its attraction as an anchorage. 



From Powell's narrative of the easterly passage along the north coast of Coronation 

 Island, it is fairly obvious that it was Palmer who was actually the first to sight Lewth- 

 waite Strait. It is apparent that on the morning of December 9 the two vessels separ- 

 ated, Palmer keeping at some distance from the land while Powell with considerable 



1 Mossman, R. C, 1906, The Voyage of the ^Scotia', p. 69 (Edinburgh and London). 

 ^ D'Urville, D., 1842, Voyage au Pole Sud, Histoire du Voyage, 2, p. 70 (Paris). 



