The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

SOUTH GEOBGIA. 481
and a fresh supply of prorisions. An inlet in the harhour is full of dismasted
hulks which were found too damaged to be worth while patching up again.
The administration of the archipelago is entrusted to a governor, directly
appointed by the Crown, and assisted by a legislative and an executive council,
also nominated by the Queen. Since 1892 the colonists have begun to take
part in the government of the islands.
Soi-TH Georgl\.
South Georgia, about 1,600 square miles in extent, depends administratively
on the Government of the Falkland Islands. But it is uninhabited, and only
occasionallv visited by fishers and sailors. Even its contour Hnes are not yet
Fig. 190.
—
South Geobgia.
«^le 1 : l,900,O:« Milea.
. SS Miles.
accurately determined, and the surveys taken by the English and Russian navi-
gators do not penetrate inland, nor, in some cases, even to the head of the bays
and creeks.
The relief of the interior was unknown in the year 1882, when a German
scientific expedition established itself at Eoyal Bay, at the eastern extremity of
the island, to take part in the circumpolar studies, at that time undertaken by the
leading maritime powers in connection with the transit of Tenus. But the
expedition confined its explorations to the immediate vicinity of the bay.
The island, above which rise snowv- peaks ranging from 6,500 to 8,000 feet in
height, consists exclusively of very old unfossiliferous formations, gneiss, and
argillaceous schists, of difiicult access from the sea. The clifEs have been worn by
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