ISLAND OF SOUTH GEORGIA. 139' 



the assumption that the three discoveries were identical 

 — the appearance and the size. The latter is greatest 

 in Bouvet's account, while the appearance is described 

 exactly like the appearance by Lindsay, elevated in the 

 west, flat in the east, while Norris describes it as high in 

 the north and low in the south. In a previous work 1 the 

 author has explained the extraordinary circumstance that 

 neither Ross nor Moore succeeded in finding the island 

 group, by the conjecture that it no longer exists. It may 

 have disappeared owing either to a submarine subsidence, 

 or, what is far more probable, to a fresh volcanic eruption, 

 like that of Krakatao. And even if such a conjecture 

 cannot be entirely upheld, a fresh eruption would account 

 for its changed appearance and dimished extent. In the 

 same place it was pointed out that the peculiar ridge of 

 rock resembling the terrace on which surf beats, which 

 Moore saw in latitude 6o° 45' S., longitude 4 E. — there- 

 fore near the meridian of Bouvet Island — might be the 

 last vestige of a vanished volcanic island. Be that as it 

 may, in any event it is greatly to be desired, as Ross has 

 already emphasised, that the circumstances should once 

 for all be fully investigated from the Cape, especially in 

 the matter of taking numerous and accurate soundings, and 

 thus to establish either the continued existence of the 

 islands or the existence of a submarine bank in their place. 



2. THE ISLAND OF SOUTH GEORGIA. 



As early as Bellingshausen's time the idea came into 

 existence that South Georgia, as well as the group of 

 the South Sandwich Isles, is probably intimately con- 

 nected with South America. Bellingshausen held that 

 all these islands belong to a mountain chain which was 

 supposed to extend by the Aurora rocks — which probably 

 have no existence — right across to the Falkland Islands. 

 Hans Reiter, who has already been referred to, has- 



1 Fricker, Ursprung und V erbreitung des Antarktische?i Treibeises. 



