CHAPTER XXV 
HEARD ISLAND 
Some 240 nautical miles south of the Kerguelen Isles, 
in lat. 53° 10' S. and long. 73° 30 E., lies Heard 
Island, which is closely related in its physical character 
to the islands we have described. Its length amounts 
to 39 miles with a maximum breadth of gi miles. At 
the eastern end it juts out into a tongue-shaped cape; 
on the north Whisky Bay forms a safe harbour, which 
is visited by whale-hunters. The ground, which is vol¬ 
canic, rises in the interior to a rem*arkable height; the 
loftiest summit. Big Bon, is said to be over 6500 ft. high. 
In the character of its landscapes it reminds one of 
Greenland, as the glaciers are very extensive, and reach, 
with their covering of snow, to the very coast. There 
they are washed by the waves, and great masses are 
broken off and floated away by the action of the tides. 
Numerous cones of ice are distributed over the surface 
of the glacier; these are covered with volcanic, tolerably 
coherent sand. Glacier tables, too, are often met with. 
Glacier streams which change their course every minute 
furrow the sandy shore. 
The climate, according to the reports of the whale 
hunters, is far more unpleasant than even that of the Ker¬ 
guelen Isles. 
In the Antarctic winter the ground is everywhere 
frozen, and the brooks and rivers become completely 
congealed. 
Sunshine with a cloudless sky prevails in December, 
when the high mountain of the island is generally visible; 
