Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/417

] the landing of the boats, and it was not until the 24th the boats could regain the ships. They brought the skins of forty-eight seals they had killed on the island. And the log says, "We found by their report that seals are very scarce; and the isle is not likely to produce many, the S.W. point being the only place where they can make a landing, as the boats went entirely round the isle, and nothing but perpendicular rocks could be seen; it bears evident marks of having been a volcano, as it is nothing less than a complete cinder, with immense veins of lava, which have the appearance of black glass, though some are streaked with white."

Captain James Lindsay, in the Swan sealer, also belonging to Messrs. Enderby, endeavoured to approach an island which they saw in latitude 54° 24′ S., and longitude 3° 15′ E., on the 7th of October, 1808; but after persevering for several days, and running great hazard, they were unable to penetrate the floes and loose ice by which it was surrounded, and abandoned the attempt. His description of the island, as well as the position he assigns it, differs so much from Captain Norris's, that it was certainly not the same as that upon which his people landed. He says, "The west point of the island is high and steep, the east point low and level, covered with snow; it appears about five miles from east to west, and the close ice surrounds it to the distance of three miles from its shores."