136 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



collection of the marine fauna. Throughout the group landings are difficult by reason 

 of the steep coast and ceaseless swell. In all, five attempts at landing were made: of 

 these only one, on Thule Island, was successful, and here geological specimens were 

 taken and samples collected of the meagre land fauna and flora. 



Among the more interesting results of the work are (i) the confirmation of Cook's 

 statement that there are two islands in the Candlemas Group, a fact which has been 

 denied in recent years, (ii) the observations on the present state of volcanic activity in 

 the islands, and (iii) the discovery of a deep enclosed basin, formerly a crater, between 

 Cook and Thule Islands. 



We had hoped that Capt. W. M. Carey, to whom we are indebted in many ways, 

 would have shared with us the responsibility of authorship, for the paper, far from 

 representing merely our own individual work, is the result of the united eff"orts of 

 the entire ship's company. Since he has declined we must acknowledge the help 

 which he has given us in the preparation of this report and express our gratitude to him 

 for his able conduct of the survey. We have received so much help from all the ship's 

 officers and scientific staff that it is perhaps invidious to discriminate, but we feel that 

 we should thank Mr F. C. Fraser for assistance on geological points, Dr E. H. Marshall 

 . for compiling lists of birds seen at the various islands, and Dr N. A. Mackintosh and 

 Mr H. F. P. Herdman for drawing certain figures for us. Our notes on the hydrology 

 of the submarine crater in Douglas Strait owe much to discussion with Mr H. F. P. 

 Herdman and Mr A. J. Clowes. 



Mr J. M. Wordie has kindly read through the manuscript of this report, and we are 

 indebted to him for a number of suggestions. 



We have derived much assistance from a folio of typewritten " Notes on the S. Sand- 

 wich Islands", dated September 1927, and compiled in the Hydrographic Department 

 of the Admiralty. These notes provided us with a summary of previous exploration 

 of the islands; they included extracts from all the more important sources, and — most 

 valuable of all — supplied us with a translation of the relevant parts of Bellingshausen's 

 narrative of his Antarctic voyage, a scarce work published in Russian. With the folio 

 were numerous illustrations, reproductions of views given in Bellingshausen's atlas and of 

 sketch-plans by C. A. Larsen. These notes enabled us to make better use of our oppor- 

 tunities than we could otherwise have done, and we are indebted to them for part of the 

 inforaiation contained in our history of the islands. 



HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS 



The islands composing the South Sandwich Group are eleven in number ; as will be 

 seen from Fig. i they are the most easterly of the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands. 

 The positions and names of the islands are shown in Fig. 2. 



The group was discovered by Captain James Cook,^ R.N., in H.M.S. 'Resolution' 

 on January 31 1775, during his second circumnavigation of the world. 



^ Cook, A voyage to the South Pole and round the World. . . , 11, pp. 224-30 (London, iJTj). 



