88 



DISCOVERY 



Lost Islands of the 

 Southern Ocean 



By R. N. Rudmose Brown, D.Sc. 



I\ the waste of waters known as the Southern Ocean, 

 which he south of the three great inhabited continents 

 of the southern hemisphere, the only land areas, beyond 

 the great but little-known continent of Antarctica, 

 are a few scattered islands, some merely detached 

 portions of Antarctica near which they lie, but others 

 tiny specks of land in mid-ocean. Few, if any, of these 

 islands have permanent inhabitants ; many of them are 

 little known and imperfectly explored. Apart from 

 the importance some of them, such as South Georgia 

 and Kerguelen, have as whaling and sealing stations — 

 for they have no other economic value — these islands 

 are of scientific interest in throwing light on the dis- 

 tribution of plant and animal life and the former 

 distribution of land connections in the southern hemi- 

 sphere. 



Particular interest attaches to certain islands that 

 have been -reported and found a place, albeit a 

 doubtful one. on the chart, but hav-e eluded searchers 

 time and again. Do such islands exist, or were they 

 simply born of imagination or illusion ? There is little 

 fine weather in the Southern Ocean ; gales and heavy 

 seas are the order of the day throughout the year, and 

 under the lowering skies, particularly in midwinter, 

 visibility is poor. Clouds or icebergs may be mistaken 

 for land, and imagination may take strange forms. 

 I have seen an icemaster, who had twenty years' experi- 

 ence of icebergs and their curious shapes, turn his ship 

 off her course for an hour to make sure that a queer 

 loom en the horizon was an iceberg and not a new 

 island. Conversely it must not be forgotten that the 

 poor visibility which is the rule makes the search for a 

 reported island a matter of difficulty. On one occasion, 

 when a few miles off a lofty volcanic island in the 

 South Sandwich group, I saw no sign of land. 



It is far easier for an island to find a place on a chart 

 than to be removed therefrom. A few that figured for 

 many years have already gone c r might safely be erased. 

 The Royal Company Islands were reported by a Spanish 

 ship about 1776 to lie south-south-west of Tasmania in 

 about lat. 49° S. and long. 142^ E. No one appears to 

 have seen them since, and exhaustive search in the 

 neighbourhood on several occasions has failed to reveal 

 them. Soundings within ninety miles of their reported 

 position show a depth of over 2,000 fathcms.^ But this 

 fact cannot by itself be accepted as conclusive proof of 

 the non-existence of land, since water of that depth is 

 known to occur much nearer to certain other islands. 



' li'ith the" Aurora" in the Antarctic. J.K.Davis. Londcn, 

 1919, p. Cl. 



Emerald Island, farther east and south in the same 

 seas (lat. 57^ 15' S., long. 162° 50' E.), was reported 

 by a sealer in 1821. At a distance of some twenty-five 

 miles he saw the semblance of an island about thirty 

 miles long, rising into high peaked mountains. In all 

 probability the supposed island was a cloud effect 

 or possibly a gigantic iceberg. Search has failed to 

 rediscover this island, but has shown that huge icebergs 

 may occur in the locality. It has been suggested that 

 Emerald Island was really Macquarie Island, lying 

 about 250 miles to the north-west, for errors in posi- 

 tion, especially as regards longitude, were not improb- 

 able among sealers a century ago. But, as the vessel 

 after sighting this new island called at Macquarie 

 Island, the explanation will not fit. There is no likeli- 

 hood that Emerald Island exists. The Aurora Islands 

 in the South Atlantic were reported in 1762, and 

 twice later in the same century, to lie in about lat. 

 53° S., long. 48° W. This was clearly a case of mistaken 

 longitude, and the Aurora Islands are doubtless identical 

 with the Shag Rocks, a tiny group of jagged rocks, 

 some 150 feet high, the haunt of many sea-birds, but 

 untrodden bv man. 



Another group which may have to be removed from 

 the chart are the Nimrod Islands, said to have been 

 discovered in lat. 56° 30' S., long. 158° 30' W., in 1828 

 by the ship Nimrod. They were sighted at some 

 distance. This position, being well within the limit of 

 floating ice, is off the track of vessels crossing the 

 Southern Pacific, but more than one explorer has sought 

 in vain for the group. Biscoe, however, in 1831, re- 

 ported many birds and much floating vegetation on 

 the site, but Davis in igog, strangely enough in another 

 Nimrod, found no sign of land. An error in longitude 

 may have displaced this island group many miles. 

 There is vet no proof that it does not exist, although 

 Davis found a depth ot 1,140 fathoms within sixteen 

 miles of its reported site. 



The case of Dougherty Island, farther east and in a 

 higher latitude than the Nimrod group, presents features 

 of more interest and is not a little mysterious. In 

 lat. 59° 30' S., long. 100° W., American sealers are 

 said to have known an island called Swain's Island, 

 where at least one cargo of seals was obtained. This 

 was about 1800, and the island seems to have been 

 forgotten when sealing in Antarctic waters was given 

 up. In 1S41 Captain Dougherty, in command of a 

 whaler, sighted, at a distance of about 400 yards, an 

 island five to sixmiles long, with a high bluff at thenorth- 

 east, and fairly low land at the south-west. Between 

 was a valley covered with snow. He gave its position 

 as about lat. 5g° S., long. 120'' W. Captain Keates 



[ in i85g sighted a round island about 80 feet high in 

 much the same latitude, but thirty-four miles farther 



Teast. Then comes the most remarkable part of the 



