328 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



group and its coasts were unapproachable. The ' Discovery II ' continued her voyage to 

 the South Shetlands and the Bellingshausen Sea, and on her return from that cruise in 

 February 1931 again visited the South Orkneys in the hope of finding them sufficiently 

 free of ice and fog to allow of a survey to be made. This hope was unfulfilled. The pack 

 was up to Signy Island and although the ship waited for four days (February 14-17) in 

 Sandefjord Bay, neither sun nor stars made their appearance owing to the persistent fog 

 and mist which hung over the land. In the meantime the pack had been steadily ap- 

 proaching from the southward and was already nearly up to Sandefjord Bay by the time 

 the ' Discovery II ' sailed. Sights were now obtained at sea and certain positions at the 

 western end of Coronation Island and along the northern side of the group as far as the 

 eastern end of Laurie Island were fixed by running survey and solar observations, 

 notably Return Point, Conception and Foul Points, the centres of Powell and Saddle 

 Islands and Cape Dundas. Although these observations were carried out under con- 

 ditions that were far from favourable the position then assigned to Cape Dundas agrees 

 very closely with the most recent determinations. 



THE RECENT SURVEY OF THE ISLANDS 



In the spring and early summer of 1932 the R.R.S. 'Discovery II' was occupied in 

 making a chemical and biological survey of the waters of the Falkland sector of the 

 Antarctic, a survey similar to that made a year before and described recently by Mr 

 D. D. John in the Geographical Journal for May 1934. The edge of the pack-ice, wherever 

 it might lie, constituted the southern limit of these investigations. 



In middle and often in late spring the ice lies to the north of the South Shetlands 

 and the South Orkneys. Towards the end of October the Bransfield Strait is still firmly 

 blocked and as a rule a partial congestion continues there throughout November. The 

 northern side of the South Shetlands, however, is often clear during this month, but 

 farther east the South Orkneys, although lying nearly 100 miles north of the latitude 

 of the main South Shetland Archipelago, are almost invariably enveloped on all sides 

 and consequently unapproachable. In the late spring of 1932 the ice-edge, from 

 about 80° W to the neighbourhood of the South Orkneys, lay unusually far to the 

 southward. While operating the first north and south line of our survey we crossed the 

 Antarctic Circle in the eightieth meridian during the last days of October and met the 

 pack in about 68° S. Soon afterwards the Bransfield Strait was found to be completely 

 ice-free in the first week of November, and later, on November 22, as we approached the 

 South Orkneys along the forty-fifth meridian we were surprised to find that Laurie Island 

 was also clear of pack at such an early date. For the moment our original programme 

 was abandoned and the ' Discovery II ' anchored in Scotia Bay in order to take advantage 

 of the opportunity that these exceptional conditions off'ered for hydrographic survey. 

 The weather being favourable the magnetic variation was determined, and a solar posi- 

 tion obtained on shore that diflFered only slightly — by o-8 mile south and i-8 miles 

 east — from that already determined by Bruce. On the evening of November 22 the 



