DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLANDS 



335 



by two narrow parallel straits, Washington in the east and Lewthwaite in the west. Signy 

 Island lies half-way along the south coast of Coronation Island and is separated from 

 the latter by a narrow passage, Normanna Strait. Although the outline of the group 

 as a whole is most irregular and its coasts deeply indented by bays of considerable size, 

 it possesses a well-defined long axis, trending in Coronation Island, in an east-south- 

 east and west-north-west direction, in Laurie Island, almost due east and west. From 

 Cape Dundas, in the extreme east of Laurie Island, to the Inaccessible Islands, the 

 extreme westerly limit of the group, the distance is 68 miles. From north to south it is 



Fig. 10. The Falkland Islands and their Dependencies. 



very much less. Coronation Island, the largest of the group, even at its broadest point 

 being scarcely eight miles across. With the exception of Signy all the larger islands are 

 extensively ice-clad, and in this as in other respects the group may perhaps be considered 

 to be more truly Antarctic in character than the South Shetlands which lie considerably 

 farther to the south. 



Lying near the Weddell Sea, the South Orkneys become involved annually in the 

 general winter freeze-up of the Antarctic Ocean and in consequence are only accessible 

 to shipping for a short period during the summer. 



On their north side the South Orkneys rise suddenly out of deep water. In Herdman's 

 bathymetric chart^ depths of over 5000 m. occur within twenty miles of the northern 

 shores, the 250-2000 m. isobaths being closely crowded together within only a few miles 



> Herdman, H. F. P., 1932, Report on Soundings taken during the Discovery Investigations, 1926-32, 

 Discovery Reports, vi, pp. 205-36, pi. XLV. 



