description of the islands 3s7 



Season 1932-3 



R.R.S. 'Discovery 11', W. M. Carey, November 22-24, ^QS^- The group was ice-free. On No- 

 vember 24 the ice-edge was met seventy miles due south of Laurie Island. From that point it trended 

 north-eastwards towards the Sandwich group. 



R.R.S. 'Discovery IF, W. M. Carey, January 2-30, 1933. No pack-ice was seen anywhere near 

 the group throughout this period. 



Season 1933-4 



R.R.S. 'Discovery IF, A. L. Nelson, April 1-2, 1934. The pack was evidently up to and blocking 

 the southern side of Laurie Island. Washington and Lewthwaite Straits were blocked by fairly heavy 

 ice. Signy Island, however, and the western part of the group in general was apparently clear. The 

 'Discovery II' anchored in Borge Bay and later in Sandefjord Bay (see p. 350). 



Season 1934-5 



R.R.S. 'Discovery IF, A. L. Nelson, September 28-30, 1934. The pack lay well to the north of the 

 islands which were inaccessible. Its northern edge, which was loose and inclined to be irregularly 

 produced in streams, was met in 60° S, in about 51° W. From there it trended north-eastwards. 



ICEBERGS! 



In January 1933 a great fleet of icebergs, probably well over 2000 in number, was 

 gathered in the neighbourhood of the South Orkneys, the bulk of them in the com- 

 paratively shallow water on the southern side of the group. There, within twenty miles 

 of the shore, at least 1500 were present in the early part of the month; the majority, 

 of which a large proportion were evidently aground, within a few miles of the land, 

 the rest afloat in the deeper water farther out to sea. From east to west they stretched 

 along the entire length of the southern coasts covering the sea for many square miles 

 and occasionally crowded so thickly that in certain circumscribed areas the southern 

 horizon was cut out altogether (Plate XIV, fig. 3). They were heavily concentrated about 

 the southern approaches to Washington and Lewthwaite Straits, no less than 490 being 

 counted there from the southern peak of Powell Island (Plate XIV, fig. 2), while ofl^ the 

 south-western corner of Coronation Island, immediately south of Sandefjord Bay, an 

 almost equally heavy concentration had occurred (Plate XIII, fig. i). To the east of Cape 

 Dundas many more were seen but the number there was not ascertained. Off the 

 northern coasts on the other hand far fewer were met, about 150 in all, and in the 

 straits between Laurie and Coronation Islands icebergs on the whole were com- 

 paratively rare, although a few, from thirty to sixty, could generally be seen there either 

 stranded or drifting slowly through on the tide. With few exceptions the latter were 

 inclined to be small, the larger evidently being prevented by their draught from pass- 

 ing far into the straits. By the end of January the total number of bergs in the 

 vicinity of the islands had greatly diminished ; many that had been aground had broken 

 up completely, many that had chanced to remain afloat had passed on to the north-east- 

 ward with the Weddell drift, which evidently brings these great fleets of bergs down 

 on to the group. 



1 Notes on the icebergs at the South Orkneys in January 1933 were kept by the Second Officer, 

 Lieutenant R. A. B. Ardley, and to these I am much indebted. 



