362 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



In Fetters Bay on the east coast there is an ice-foot glacier which is continuous 

 behind with two tongues of ice. The northerly of these presents all the appearances of 

 a true valley glacier and is perhaps the only example of its kind in the South Orkneys 

 (Plate XIX, fig. 4). It is possible, however, that there is another on the eastern part 

 of the north coast (Plate XVIII, fig. 3). 



SiGNY Island. In spite of its southerly situation Signy Island is but little glaciated. 

 The land throughout is uniformly low, never rising above 790 feet. It supports merely 

 a light snow and ice field which extends over the greater part of the southern half of the 

 island in a smooth and rather flat sheet, but is not continuous in the north where the land 

 is more irregular and broken (Plate XXI I , fig. i ) . From the frequency of the rock patches 

 which appear through it, it is evidently nowhere of any great thickness. It has its major 

 outlet in a steeply falling glacier whose foot rests several hundred yards inland at the 

 head of the short valley which opens on to Borge Bay from the south. The foot of this 

 glacier has receded, its original path to the sea being clearly marked by moraines. A 

 small stream flows from it into Borge Bay. 



With the exception of a few gentle snow slopes coming from the field above the coasts 

 of Signy Island are remarkably free from glaciation of any form. 



In view of the marked development of highland ice over the north-western end of 

 Coronation Island, the most northerly region in the group, it is rather remarkable that 

 Signy Island in the extreme south is not similarly ice-clad. Admittedly the island as a 

 whole is low-lying (a cogent factor as far as ice formation is concerned in such a com- 

 paratively low latitude as that occupied by the South Orkneys) and has considerable 

 areas of fairly level ground from which any accumulation of snow might readily be 

 swept away or melted through exposure to high winds or the sun ; yet if these be the 

 factors responsible for the discontinuity and lightness of its ice-cap it is diflicult to 

 understand why the same factors should not be at work at (say) the western end of 

 Coronation Island in the neighbourhood of Deacon Hill, where the land is not only 

 little if at all higher and almost as level, but exposed to equally powerful winds. Like 

 Signy Island this region is swept by the prevailing westerly and south-westerly winds, 

 and receives the first impact of the warm north-westerlies, the strongest and most 

 frequent of the northerly winds. The latter, far from preventing the accumulation of 

 snow and ice, actually seem to favour it. In fact there can be little doubt that the more 

 or less continuous ice-sheet that exists over the western end and along much of the 

 north coast of Coronation Island is due in a large measure to the dense fogs and heavy 

 precipitation resulting from the influx of warm moisture-laden air^ over the cold land. 

 It is indeed probable that a great deal of the ice which accumulates over this region is 

 actually deposited out of the mist at low temperatures in the form of rime — not only on 

 the heights but on the low ground bordering the coast as well. The formation of rime 

 at high and low levels is known to occur at the South Orkneys. John"^ records that on 



1 See Mossman, R. C, 1905, Some Meteorological Results of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 

 Scott. Geog. Mag., xxii, No. v, p. 257. 



- John, D. Dilwyn, 1934, loc. cit., p. 393. 



