ISLAND OF SOUTH GEORGIA. 145 



Adventure Bay, followed by the channel between Willis 



Island and the main island. 



Not only the outline, the narrow and extended form, 



the deep fjords, point to the fact that in South Georgia 



we have before us a portion of a broken and submerged 



mountain chain, but the structure of its surface and the 



meagre details we possess of the geology of the island 



prove such conjecture a certainty. From one extremity 



to the other a wild range of mountains fills the island, 



rising steep and precipitous from the sea to a considerable 



height, and, so far as is known, nowhere descending 



to valley or plain of any importance. It appears that 



a single principal range forms the backbone, from 



which lateral ranges strike out on both sides, but 



principally to the north-east ; between these the deep 



fjord-like bays, before referred to, extend far inland. All 



the highest summits appear to belong to the principal 



range, and occur especially in the eastern half, where 



the altitudes were computed at the German South Polar 



Station in Royal Bay. The highest elevations in the 



neighbourhood of the station, those of the " Wetterwand," 



approximate to 7,000 feet at a distance of about seven 



miles from the coast : much like the Piz Bernina from 



Pont Resina in the Rhcetian Alps. Summits rise sheer 



from the sea in Royal Bay to a height of 2,300 to 2,600 



feet. From one of these mountains, looking west, still 



greater elevations were seen in the far distance in the same 



region where the highest summits had been observed 



from the south coast also. Between the summits of the 



range the passes are partly found to be of low elevation, 



as for instance in the case of the gigantic Ross Glacier, 



which flows into Royal Bay, where the height of the 



pass seems to reach only about 1,100 feet. The outlines 



of the heights are remarkably abrupt and bold, and they 



occur on ridges with steep descents on both sides. But 



the circumstance which in addition to its elevations gives 



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