336 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



of Saddle Island and Conception Point. On the other hand the bathymetric gradient on 

 the south side appears to be a gentle one, and although the area as yet has been little 

 sounded, there are indications that great depths such as are encountered so quickly in 

 the north do not occur within a hundred miles of the southern shores. On the evidence 

 of a few scattered soundings by the ' Scotia ' and the ' Discovery ' and some echo soundings 

 by the ' Discovery II ' Herdman has shown provisionally that shallow water of less than 

 1000 m. in depth extends approximately for thirty-five miles to the south-west, thirty 

 miles to the south, and as much as ninety miles to the south-east of the group. More 

 recent soundings, however, which have not yet been placed upon the chart, would seem 

 to indicate that the bathymetric gradient at least to the south of Laurie Island is even 

 gentler than Herdman supposed. On November 22, 1932, the 'Discovery II' sounded 

 continuously in shallow water for a long way to the southwards and was still in soundings 

 of less than 500 m. when eventually held up by pack-ice seventy miles due south of Scotia 

 Bay. It would also appear that the extension of the coastal shelf to the south-eastwards 

 of the group, first demonstrated by Bruce^ some thirty years ago, swings round to the 

 west and is considerably larger in area than has hitherto been supposed. From the avail- 

 able soundings it is therefore evident that a considerable area of shallow water extends 

 for a relatively great distance to the south and south-east of Laurie Island. Still farther 

 to the southward there is presumably a fairly abrupt descent to the floor of the Weddell 

 Sea, but the nature of the slope is unknown since the area under consideration is usually 

 heavily covered with pack-ice and has not yet been examined. 



With the exception of Signy, the islands on the whole rise abruptly from the sea by 

 irregular ridges and sharp peaks to the crest of a mountain chain or central ridge of very 

 variable height, which running from east to west forms the backbone of the group. 

 The central ridge attains its maximum height at the eastern end of Coronation Island, 

 where it rises above 3000 feet. The coasts in general are precipitous and rugged to a 

 degree. In some parts of the group, however, notably in the north and north-west of 

 Coronation Island, there is comparatively low-lying land adjoining the sea, of a fairly easy 

 gradient and covered smoothly by a thin, almost continuous mantle of ice (Plate XVIII, 

 fig. i). Elsewhere the mountains descend to the sea in precipitous slopes and by sharp 

 rocky ridges, terminating in bold headlands or in sheer buttresses and ice slopes of 

 varying declivity (Plates XV, XVI, XX). The coast-line is broken at frequent intervals by 

 the cliff fronts of short glaciers of a type common to the more northerly Antarctic lands 

 of the Falkland Dependencies and exceedingly numerous at the South Orkneys, where 

 they fill every valley and depression opening on to the sea from the heights above.'- They 

 occur typically as low platforms in the otherwise lofty coast, between the rock ridges and 

 steep bluff^s that plunge directly into the sea. Near the shore-line their slope to the sea 

 is a gentle one, but in the rear they soon curve rapidly upwards by smooth slopes to- 



1 Bruce, W. S., 1905, Bathymetric Survey of the South Atlantic Ocean and Weddell Sea, Scott. Geog. 

 Mag., XXI, No. VIII, pp. 404-8. 



- These are the so-called "ice-foot" glaciers of Nordenskjold. They are discussed in greater detail below, 

 pp. 360 and 364-5. 



