138 THE ANTARCTIC. 



south, is elevated and uneven in the north, low in the 

 south, high and snow-clad in the middle. The coast 

 was steep and, therefore, not fitted for landing upon. 

 At a distance of forty-five nautical miles to the north- 

 east of this island, in latitude 53° 56' S. and longitude 

 5 30' E., lies Thompson Island, and four to five nautical 

 miles to the south-west of this three isolated rocks, the 

 Chimneys, with a fourth, three nautical miles farther 

 south. As the crew of one of the boats was weather- 

 bound for six days on Thompson Island, some account 

 of it is given, though very short. According to this 

 the island consists of a volcanic mass, the rocks falling 

 perpendicularly to the sea, with the exception of one 

 place in the south-west. The surface shows streams of 

 obsidian with layers of pumice-stone interspersed. Of 

 the vegetation nothing is said, neither is reference made 

 to the extent or the height of the island, or to any other 

 detail that might have been expected. 



If these three accounts be compared, the first parti- 

 cular attracting attention is that the latitude of the dis- 

 covery of Bouvet, as well as that of Lindsay, is not far 

 removed from the latitude that Norris assigns to his 

 Liverpool Island. Bouvet gives 54° to 54° 5', Lindsay 

 54° 22', and Norris 54° 15' S., therefore midway between 

 the other two explorers. It must be borne in mind 

 that Norris not only evidently had brighter weather 

 than Bouvet or Lindsay, but he was provided with 

 better instruments, and could, therefore, lay down the 

 position more accurately ; it is, therefore, not unreasonable 

 to assume that all three saw the same island. Another 

 argument for this view can be drawn from the fact that 

 both Bouvet's vessels apparently saw land on the 8th 

 and 9th of January, 1739, to the N.N.E. of Cape 

 Circoncision, exactly in the direction, therefore, in which 

 Norris's Thompson Island was seen from his Liverpool 

 Island. Two items remain which apparently tell against 



