Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

leading to North Point is more or less linear with Spindrift Rocks lying close
offshore and Flensing Islets further out to sea.
Signy Island is composed mainly of sedimentary rocks, quartz mica schists
and amphibolites, with local marble outcrops occurring as prominent knolls in
coastal areas, for example between Elephant Flats and Jane Peak. Glaciers have
eroded the land and there are conspicuous moraines. Freeze and thaw action has
heaved the mineral soils, forming conspicuous patterned ground, including
stone polygons and circles in flat areas and stone stripes on the slopes. More
stable substrates prove suitable for moss and lichen establishment. The mosses
predominate on low-lying ground near the coasts, in moist areas in depressions,
and around the lakes and streams. While mosses also occur in drier, more
exposed habitats, lichens predominate there, including rock-encrusting species.
Colourful marine lichens occur on the rocky shores. Some north-facing slopes
have continuous stands of tussock-forming mosses and small clumps of the only
two flowering plants are found there - a grass, Deschampsia caespitatosa and a
relative of the sea pink of British coasts, Colobanthus quitensis. Neither of these
plants flower every year in the hostile environment and this is one of the few
places in the Antarctic at which they have been found. I also found a small
toadstool - probably introduced by the whalers.
The island is dotted with 17 lakes (ranging in character from very barren to
rich in life), and some short seasonal streams. The largest are in Three Lakes
Valley extending south from Stygian Cove towards Elephant Flats. Moraine
Valley runs south from Elephant Flats between Rusty Bluff (713 ft) and Garnet
Hill (728 ft), a much-trodden route leading over to Gourlay Peninsula. In places
a few small streams flow for a few weeks during the summer; we depended on
one of these for our drinking water in summer (but in winter we had to melt
snow blocks).
Low-lying Signy Island has large penguin colonies, containing chinstrap,
Adelie, gentoo and a few macaroni, mainly located at the three points of the
triangle. There are shag colonies at North Point and Shagnasty; and other species
breed wherever there is ground free of permanent snow and ice. The main
elephant seal concentrations occupy the beaches and inland wallows in the lowlying
north-eastern part of the island, from Factory Cove to Berryman Bay and
Weddell seals are found all round the shores, together with occasional leopard
and crabeater seals. (Since my day thousands of fur seals have taken to coming
ashore in summer, numbers now reaching 20,000 ).
Coronation Island. To the north the ice-wall of Coronation Island provides a
backdrop to most views on Signy Island, extending about thirty miles from West
to East. It is rugged and mountainous; the large glaciers reach sea level and there
are many small hanging glaciers and permanent ice caps. The island curves to
northwest and northeast of Signy, shaped like a large banana. From our base hut
the view took in Snow Hill (869 ft), Jane Peak (666 ft) and Robin Peak (854 ft), on
Signy. The south coast of Coronation Island extends in an arc encompassing
Brisbane Heights and Wave Peak (3149 ft) overlooking a large glacier (now
named Laws Glacier) fringing Marshall Bay. Cape Hansen is prominent as a
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