184 THE ANTARCTIC. 



height of 2,700 feet, while its diameter is said to be only 

 about as much again. The highest summit is crater-like in 

 form, and a rock like a tower rises at the north end. Both 

 stand on a plateau 1,300 feet in height, with a steep descent 

 to a narrow shore, the slope being covered with detritus 

 loosened by frost. The stone of the island is lava, partly 

 solid, partly porous. A yellow lichen mostly covers the 

 rocks, and together with eighteen other lichens, algae and 

 even mosses, forms a flora that has a scanty subsistence 

 on a surface completely frozen over even in the height of 

 summer. 



The last section of the Dirk Gerritz Archipelago, 

 Trinity and Palmer Lands, has experienced important 

 changes in its chartographical representations during the 

 last twenty-five years. After Dallmann's discovery of 

 Bismarck Straits had severed the west coast of Palmer 

 Land from its previously presumed connection with 

 Graham's Land, the discoveries of Larsen showed that 

 there was also no connection either in the east or in the 

 centre, and it was through Larsen's observations that a 

 large portion of the Hinterland attributed to Trinity Land 

 was withdrawn. It may also be mentioned that the 

 present author had assumed a continuation of Bismarck 

 Straits before Larsen's discoveries, basing his opinion 

 on the observation made by Ross of the strong current 

 setting east on the south coast of Louis-Philippe Land. 



Great uncertainty still prevails concerning the actual 

 distribution and conformation of the land east of the 

 Orleans Channel and north of Bismarck Straits, although 

 these regions were the earliest visited of the whole 

 archipelago, both by seal-hunters and scientific expeditions 

 (Foster in the Chanticleer). Orleans Channel, which 

 bounds Trinity Land in the east, has at its end a breadth 

 of about twenty-two miles. The adjoining coast of 

 Trinity Land, situated in about 63° $0' S. latitude, 

 extends from about 59° 25' W. to about 6o° 50' W., 



