DIRK GERRITZ ARCHIPELAGO. 171 



running in the direction from E.N.E. to W.S.W. in 

 longitude 56° 30' to 6i° 30' W., and leaving a great gap 

 in the middle. The western portion of this coast bears 

 the name Trinity Land, with Hope Island off the other 

 still unnamed eastern coast. At the present time all this 

 is changed ; in place of such a coast extending in one 

 unbroken line to Graham's Land in the south-west, an 

 island group is found, intersected by numerous straits and 

 channels, and entirely separated from Graham's Land, 

 with an area considerably smaller than the imaginary 

 tracts of land of former days, though it must be confessed 

 that even this modern discovery has been insufficiently 

 investigated. 



The Dirk Gerritz Archipelago is separated from the 

 South Shetland Isles by Bransfield Straits, the breadth 

 of which varies from twenty-eight to seventy-eight miles. 

 The narrowest part is in the west, where the islets in the 

 north of Hughes Gulf approach Low Island ; the widest 

 part lies between Joinville Island — the easternmost 

 member of the Archipelago — and King George's Island. 

 At the western end isolated rocks, the Austin Rocks and 

 the Kendall Rocks, rise in the middle of the channel, the 

 former between Low Island and Trinity Land, the latter 

 between Trinity Land and Deception Island. Unfor- 

 tunately no information exists concerning the depth of the 

 water in the straits, and therefore it is impossible to draw 

 any inference concerning their structure. The only known 

 sounding, that of Dumont d'Urville to the north-west of 

 Mount Jacquinot, and therefore much nearer to Louis- 

 Philippe Land than to the South Shetland Isles, shows 950 

 feet ; this is a somewhat greater depth than that met with 

 at the same distance north of the South Shetland Isles. 



So far as our present knowledge goes, the Dirk 

 Gerritz Archipelago is composed of a number of larger 

 and smaller islands lying approximately, though not 

 completely, parallel to the South Shetland Isles, as may 



