HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS 321 



Bay from Uruguay Cove. This station is still being carried on at the present day, 

 ahhough now under Argentine control (see below). The second was a complete 

 triangulated survey of Laurie Island by Bruce, assisted by Brown, Pirie and Wilton, 

 which was made during the winter and spring of 1903 by sledge and boat parties. The 

 conditions under which this work was carried out were severe, especially in winter; the 

 precipitous nature of the coast-line, cut by many glaciers, made land sledging for the 

 most part impracticable and the surveyors were compelled to sledge over rough sea- 

 ice, which in the winter of 1903 was not compact and immovable but constantly 

 shifting, so that the sledging parties were often in danger of being swept out to sea on 

 floating ice. The unsatisfactory condition of the sea-ice for travelling was the main 

 reason why the expedition was unable to attempt a similar survey of Coronation Island. 

 The result of this careful and accurate triangulation revealed Laurie Island as having an 

 almost fantastic shape (Fig. 8) of which there is scarcely any indication in the hurried 

 surveys of last century, and considering the difficulties under which it was carried out 

 the Scottish expedition is to be congratulated on this sound contribution to the hydro- 

 graphy of the islands. The whole of the extraordinarily indented coast-line of Laurie 

 Island was surveyed in great detail with the exception of about three miles of the west 

 coast of Mackenzie Peninsula and the west side of Eillium Isle. The west coast of Pirie 

 Peninsula also was not surveyed in such detail as the rest.^ In addition to the plotting 

 of the coast-line many heights in the rugged interior were fixed and over five hundred 

 inshore soundings were made — arduous work in winter, for each sounding involved 

 cutting through ice often thirty inches thick. 



THE ARGENTINE METEOROLOGICAL STATION^ 



Hourly meteorological observations were first begun at Laurie Island on board the 

 ' Scotia ' as she lay fast in the ice in Scotia Bay during the winter of 1903 . On November 

 I they were transferred to the shore station, Omond House, a substantial one-roomed 

 stone dwelling built on the " drydike " principle, which had been erected on the Beach. 

 A small magnetic hut was also built there. While the 'Scotia' was being refitted in 

 Buenos Aires a small party under Mr R. C. Mossman remained to carry on the observa- 

 tions at the South Orkneys. In 1904 the British Minister at Buenos Aires communicated 

 to the Argentine Government an offer from Bruce to convey to the South Orkneys four 

 Argentine scientists in whose care he would place the observatory. This ofi^er was 

 accepted. The first Argentine staff was carried by the ' Scotia ' on her return to the South 

 Orkneys in February 1904, Mr Mossman remaining in charge of the work for the first 

 year of Argentine control. Since then various changes have taken place in the original 

 equipment of the station: a new magnetic hut was built in 1905 and a wooden building 



1 See Bruce, W. S., 1905, Outline Map of Laurie Island, Scott. Geog. Mag., xxi, p. 322. 



- Fuller accounts of this station, to which the author is indebted, will be found in the Annals of the 

 Argentine Meteorological Office, xvi, pp. 7-24, 1905 (Buenos Aires), and xvii, part 1, pp. 3-7, 1912 (Buenos 

 Aires). See also Passera, Gino de, 1932, Eroi Argentini alle soglie del Polo Sud, Le Vie d' Italia e dell' 

 America Latina, xxxvni, pp. 351-60. 



