HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS 327 



a good base by the whalers, is entered by a narrow passage foul on either side and con- 

 sequently difficult for large ships to negotiate. The ' Falkland' was very badly damaged 

 while trying to enter this harbour during the season 1912-13. It was much frequented, 

 however, by the smaller whale-catchers for watering. Certain roadsteads, too, have been 

 used as bases : in the season 191 2-13 the ' Thule ' anchored in Normanna Strait between 

 Signy Island and Coronation Island, and in the same season the 'Tioga' found shelter 

 inside Jebsen Rocks on the west coast of Signy Island, on which she drove ashore in a 

 gale and was wrecked. The wreck was still lying there when the R.R.S. ' Discovery II ' 

 visited the island twenty years afterwards in January 1933, and on being boarded was 

 found to have been stripped of everything that could be taken away including the 

 bearings of the winches. 



THE WORK OF THE VESSELS OF THE DISCOVERY COMMITTEE 



Before passing to the description of the most recent hydrographic survey of the South 

 Orkneys, that of the R.R.S. ' Discovery II ' in January 1933, it is necessary to give a short 

 summary of what has already been accomplished there, in surveying as well as in other 

 scientific work, by the vessels of the Discovery Committee during their earlier voyages 

 in southern waters. 



On February 4, 1927, the R.R.S. 'Discovery', the famous auxiliary barque then em- 

 ployed by the Discovery Committee, sailed from South Georgia for the South Orkneys, 

 and after a rough passage sighted the land on the i6th, entered Borge Bay the 

 following evening and moored alongside the floating factory 'Orwell' for whom she 

 carried mails. She sailed again early on the 20th for Deception Island and the Palmer 

 Archipelago. In the short time at his disposal Lieutenant-Commander J. M. ChapHn, 

 R.N.,1 then Chief Officer of the 'Discovery', made a sextant triangulation of Borge 

 Bay and from astronomical observations obtained on shore demonstrated that the 

 whole group was charted fifteen miles too far to the westward. In the neighbourhood 

 of Signy Island several hauls with the otter trawl, beam trawl and dredge were made in 

 depths ranging from 20 to 340 m., and at Paal Harbour Microdrilid earthworms were 

 discovered, apparently the first ever recorded from the group.^ In working on the rich 

 inshore bottom fauna of this region the ' Discovery ' extended into deeper water the ob- 

 servations of the ' Scotia', which were confined for the most part to much shallower 

 water (10-27 '^O "^^^ ^er winter anchorage in Scotia Bay.^ 



Towards the end of her first commission, 1929-3 1 , the R.R.S. ' Discovery II ' attempted 

 twice to make a running survey of the South Orkneys, on each occasion being frustrated 

 by those persistent enemies of the surveyor in this part of the Antarctic, pack-ice and 

 thick weather. In December 1930, when the first attempt was made, ice invested the 



1 Chaplin, J. M., 1932, Narrative of Hydrographic Survey Operations in South Georgia and the South 

 Shetland Islands, Discovery Reports, ni, p. 301, Chart No. 4. 



- Stephenson, J., 1932, Oligochaeta, Part /, Microdrili (mainly Enchytraeidae), Discovery Reports, iv, 



P- 235- 



^ Bruce, W. S., 1918, Zoological Log, Scientific Results of the 'Scotia' 1902-4, iv, part I, pp. i-ioi. 



