150 THE ANTARCTIC. 



2j° 14' W., and the most easterly, Saunders Island, is in 

 latitude 57° 51' S. and longitude 26° 24' W. The whole 

 group, so far as it is known, consists of sixteen islands and 

 cliffs of greater or less extent, none of them having a 

 superficial area of any size. Generally several of these 

 lie pretty close to one another, separated from the next 

 group by a greater distance. At the extreme north are 

 the three Traversey Islands, consisting of Sowadowskji, 

 Ljeskow and Wysokji Islands. The first of these is a 

 volcano that was in activity at the time of Bellingshausen's 

 visit. It rises abruptly out of the sea, for at one and a 

 half nautical miles from its southern edge no bottom was 

 reached at a depth of 760 feet. The centre of the island is 

 occupied by an elevated summit under 1,140 feet high, 

 according to Bellingshausen's somewhat vague description 

 evidently an extinct crater, the south side of which is 

 remarkably steep and of a red and yellow colour, caused 

 doubtless by sublimated iron chloride and its further 

 product iron oxide. The mouth itself, out of which 

 immense clouds of smoke rose, accompanied by strong 

 gas exhalations, lay at the south-west end of the island, 

 which was nearly devoid of snow. The second of the 

 islands, Ljeskow, lies in latitude 56° 44' S. and 27° 42' W. 

 Its length from N.N.E. to S.S.W. is about two and a 

 half miles, with a breadth of half that distance. The 

 southern point bears a blunt cone-shaped mountain, and 

 at the time of Bellingshausen's visit the island was com- 

 pletely covered with ice and snow. The third member 

 of the group, viz., Wysokji, in latitude 56° 41' S. and 

 longitude 27° 16' W., is described as circular, steep and 

 rocky. The next group consists of Cook's Candlemas 

 Isles, three in number, of which the first lies in latitude 

 57 9/ S. and longitude 26° 48' W., the second, with a 

 circumference of seven and a half miles, in latitude 57° io' 

 S. and longitude 26° 44' W., and the third, five miles in 

 circumference, in latitude 57° n' S. and longitude 26° 51' 



