ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH 257 



southerly zone of the sub-Antarctic regions and in the pack-ice belt. 

 There are still considerable stretches of ocean in those latitudes thus 

 far untraversed by any ship's keel so far as indicated by available 

 records. On the other hand, those seas may have been more thoroughly 

 searched over than is today realized; for in the old fur-sealing days 

 of the southern seas many voyages in search of new seal islands were 

 conducted in secret, and no record remains. 



Reports from such sources led to the inclusion on the map, from 

 time to time, of a number of islands whose existence in the charted 

 localities has since been disproved. As examples amongst such may 

 be mentioned Emerald Island (alleged location, 57>^° S. and 163° E.), 

 Dougherty Island (59^° S., 120° W.), the Nimrod Islands (56^° S., 

 I58>^° W.), and the Royal Company's Islands (50° S., 142° E.). If 

 any of these do actually exist they must be far from the localities 

 reported, for searches made in recent years have failed to confirm the 

 presence of land where indicated. But before finally dismissing these 

 reports as myths, it is to be recalled that Bouvet Island after its first 

 report was later thought to have no existence because subsequent 

 ships failed to find it where charted. However, it was eventually 

 relocated, the trouble having arisen from the original inaccurate 

 determination of its latitude and longitude. 



Our Australasian Antarctic Expedition, whilst traversing the seas 

 south of Australia between 60° and 65° S. latitude, passed on occasions 

 quantities of floating kelp of a kind not met with along the shores 

 of the Antarctic mainland. Also the bird population in those seas 

 is very unequally distributed, as if the ship were at times distant 

 from and at other times near to their nesting places. Such phenomena, 

 suggesting the possibility of islets in those seas, is further supported by 

 the visit of a sea elephant at Cape Denison (67° S. and 142^3° E.) in 

 Adelie Land and reports in the records of one of the older expeditions 

 of sea elephants on the pack ice near the Balleny Islands. The sea 

 elephant does not inhabit the coast of the Antarctic mainland, but 

 adopts as a sanctuary and breeding ground the sub-Antarctic islands 

 of the cold seas outside the pack-ice zone. Unless unknown islands 

 do exist thereabouts, these elephants must have been far from their 

 nearest known rendezvous of Macquarie Island and Heard Island. 



Systematic Soundings As an Aid in Their Discovery 



Of all methods of clearing up such doubts, the systematic delinea- 

 tion of the sea floor by soundings will be the most conclusive. Where, 

 in the ordinary way, a vessel may pass close to an oceanic island 

 without noting its proximity, there would be furnished a hint of its 

 existence in the contour of the sea floor obtained by systematic close 

 soundings. Such clue being followed up would lead directly to the 



