SOl'TH SHETLAND ISLANDS. 



165 



interesting objects to be found in the Antarctic regions. 

 It is one of the most remarkable, and at the same time 

 one of the largest, crater islands on our earth. The 

 circumference of the island, whose centre is in latitude 

 62° 56' S. and longitude 6o° 40' W., is about thirty miles 

 according to Webster, to whom we are indebted for an 

 account of Foster's voyages ; the diameter from north to 

 south about twelve miles, that from east to west about 

 nine miles. Within this space a considerable portion of 



* LA 



Map of Deception Island (after Dumont d'Urville). 



the area is occupied by the inner bay, where the hollow 

 of the crater lies under the surface of the sea. This inner 

 basin, nearly elliptical in outline, has a diameter of five 

 to six miles, and a circumference of thirteen to fourteen 

 miles ; it opens towards the sea on the south-west through 

 one very narrow channel of only 550 feet across. The 

 depth of this basin increases rapidly from eighteen feet 

 at the entrance to over 1,140 feet in the centre. (This is 

 Powell's sounding; Kendall gives only 580 feet.) The 



