334 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



reduction in width, has been somewhat altered, although in a measure it still retains the 

 general appearance given it in the Norwegian chart. To the charts of last century our 

 chart of Coronation Island bears scarcely any resemblance at all. Prior to 1925 the shape 

 of Coronation Island, based on the French survey of 1838 had remained unaltered in 

 the British Admiralty charts for more than eighty years. There it appears as a vaguely 

 oblong mass of land rather less than thirty-five miles in length, and except for a narrow 

 part between Palmer's Bay and Iceberg Bay some six or seven miles across, of a fairly 

 uniform width of from twelve to fifteen miles. It is broadest towards the west where 

 it is at least fourteen miles across. The coast-line, like that of Laurie Island until Bruce 

 revealed its remarkable irregularity in 1903, appeared neither arresting in outline nor 

 characterized by deep indentations with the possible exception of Spence's Harbour and 

 Palmer's Bay. In the Norwegian chart which lately superseded the others the island 

 begins to assume an irregularity of form that is perhaps not surprising in view of the 

 remarkable outline of its eastern neighbour. Along the hitherto almost unknown south 

 coast deep indentations appear, which, running northwards into the land, greatly reduce 

 the average width of the island, especially at its western end which is shown as only some 

 eight to nine miles across. Nevertheless our recent survey (Chart I) reveals the fact 

 that Coronation Island is even more irregular in form and generally narrower and more 

 elongate than Sorlle had supposed. Indeed at its western end, where as we have seen 

 the width was reduced by Sorlle from some fourteen to eight miles, there actually exists 

 an extremely narrow neck 3-2 miles in width. In its present form Coronation Island 

 begins to assume, as never before, the appearance of a "drowned" or sunken land, an 

 impression so strongly conveyed by the parallel-sided fiord-like bays of Laurie Island. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLANDS 



The South Orkneys, a mountainous and rugged group, lie between the parallels 60° 

 and 61° S, and between the meridians 44° and 47° W. They occur far to the north of the 

 Antarctic Circle. Nevertheless, in view of the harshness of their climate, the paucity of 

 their vegetation, and the degree of their glaciation, they are strictly Antarctic in cha- 

 racter. They are a small and somewhat isolated group (Fig. 10) lying 454 miles south- 

 west of South Georgia and 293 miles north-east of the northern tip of Graham Land. 

 Their nearest neighbour is Clarence Island, from which they are separated by 173 miles 

 of open sea. The group on the whole is a compact one, the major islands which compose 

 it being separated from each other by narrow straits at most a mile or two across. It 

 consists of two large islands, Coronation Island in the west and Laurie Island in the east, 

 two smaller although still considerable islands, Powell and Signy, together with a large 

 number of very small islands, islets and rocks (Chart I). Some of the latter, in particular 

 the Inaccessible Islands, lie at a comparatively great distance from the main mass of the 

 group. The gap between Coronation Island and Laurie Island is 9-5 miles in width. 

 Almost in the middle of it, with its main axis running north and south, is the long and 

 narrow Powell Island. Coronation and Laurie Islands are thus separated from each other 



