208 THE ANTARCTIC. 



smaller depths may be attributed to the effects of the 

 glacial period in which vast masses of detritus must have 

 been deposited, but if great depths descending thousands 

 of feet had really existed near the coast of Victoria Land, 

 they would certainly never have been so greatly 

 diminished by glacial deposits. All thought of such a 

 possibility must be relinquished, and it must be assumed 

 that the relative shallowness of Ross Sea is due to 

 structural causes. Submarine eruptions may perhaps be 

 responsible for the striking variations, or the lesser depths 

 indicate ridges of glacial deposits as compared with the 

 greater depths. This conclusion, in all probability, 

 applies to a bank near the eastern section of the great 

 ice barrier, where depths of 1,076 to 1,135 f eet are 

 found at a distance of thirty to forty-six miles from the . 

 barrier. No certain light therefore is thrown on the 

 structure of Victoria Land by the soundings taken, and 

 vague uncertainty must for the present be accepted in 

 this respect, and also in that of its connection with the 

 countries in South America, and with its neighbours, 

 Wilkes Land, and the Balleny Isles, to which we now 

 proceed. 



9. THE BALLENY ISLES. 



Almost exactly in the same meridian as the western- 

 most point of Victoria Land, seen by Ross, but nearly 4 , 

 i.e., some 280 miles, farther north, the high volcanic group 

 of the Balleny Isles rises from the deep. As far as is 

 known at present it consists of three larger and two 

 smaller islands, and the middle island of the former, Buckle 

 Island, was in active eruption in two places when Balleny 

 visited them. Accurate measurements, confirmed by Ross 

 also, show that their lofty western extremity is situated in 

 latitude 66° 44' S. and longitude 163 1 \' E. To the east 

 of it lies Sturge Island, which is also or.-e of the larger ones 



