54 D. Ferguson — Geology of South Georgia. 



(letrital flat on its outward margin. A narrow valley, a morainic 

 flat, inside Cumberland Bay, runs up 4 miles to a glacier, and there 

 are other patches of morainic material, maz'king the recession of the 

 glaciers. Leith Harbour is one of these, and Elsie and Adventure 

 harbours, originally enlarged by the ice into one channel, have been 

 separated into two safe anchorages by morainic material. 



The AUardyce range of mountains forms the longitudinal axis of 

 the island, running approximately north-west and south-east. The 

 highest crests of the range, Mount Paget, the Sugar Loaf, and the 

 JN^ordenskjold Peak, are near the centre of the island. The outer 

 coast escarpments are succeeded inland by rocky heights, having ice 

 in every hollow. The central range, except on steep rock escarp- 

 ments and splintery crests, is covered with permanent ice-fields 

 and snow. 



The greatest length of the island is about 110 miles, and its 

 greatest breadth across Cumberland Bay and Mount Paget is just 

 over 29 miles. The height of Mount Paget is given as 6,000 feet 

 above sea-level on the charts of the island, but it was found to be 

 8,383 feet, from a base-line which was in part measured, and for the 

 larger part the mean of a series of speed runs by a whaling steamer 

 in Cumberland Bay, as no other method was available at the time. 

 There can be little doubt, however, that Mount Paget is much higher 

 than 6,000 feet, which has probably been stated as an approximation 

 in the absence of accurate determination instruraentally. 



Geological Literature. — Captain Cook called the island Georgia in 

 honour of King George III. He sailed down the north-east coast 

 from Willis Island to Cooper Island at the south-east extremity. 

 We owe to this explorer the names of many of the promontories and 

 bays, first discovered by him and now familiar to navigators in the 

 South Atlantic. Possession Bay was named by Captain Cook on 

 account of his landing there and taking possession of the island in 

 the name of King George III. He refers to rocky islets and rocky 

 hillocks, but does not give any details of geological structure. He 

 makes the interesting statement that he did not find a stream of 

 fresh water on the whole coast, and that only along the escarpments 

 of the north-eastern coast is there warmth enough to melt the snow. 

 In recent years the whaling industry has obtained ample supplies of 

 the purest fresh water, flowing from the base of the glaciers on the 

 north-east coast. 



Captain James Weddell ^ also visited the island, and described it 

 as so deeply indented that boats are frequently transported overland 

 from one coast to the other. 



Dr. Otto Kordenskjold - states that the general features of the 

 South Georgian landscape are similar to those of Spitzbergen. 

 Mountains and fiords follow each other in the same way, but the fells 

 of South Georgia rise from the coast, in most places, precipitously 

 to almost inaccessible ridges. He describes this island, situated 

 in lat. 54° S., as having glaciers as large as those of Spitzbergen in 

 lat 80° JN^. He found traces everywhere in Mai Viken, Cumberland 



^ J. Weddell, A Voyage toivards the Smdli Pole, pp. 50-4. 

 ^ 0. Nordenskjold, Antarctica, p. 340. 



