Basalt formations and waterfall, Kerguelen Islands
Date
1840
Creator
John Robertson (British) , Naval surgeon
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (drawing): 250mm
width (drawing): 205mm
width (drawing): 205mm
Subject
Content object
Description
View of an irregularity in basalt formations near Teal Bay on the Kerguelen Islands in the Southern Indian Ocean. The local geological features included a volcano and a waterfall emptying into the Bay. The author, John Robertson, accompanied a small expedition commanded by Lieutenant Bird, comprising two boats from the main expedition ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, charged with surveying and examining the region’s geology and zoology.
Headed ‘Sketch the 5th’ in the manuscript version of the paper ‘Catalogue of geological specimens procured at “Kerguelen” during the months of May, June & July 1840’, by John Robertson. The paper was read by the author to the Royal Society on 20 May 1841 and noted in Abstracts of the papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London from 1837 to 1843 inclusive vol.4 (Richard and John E Taylor, London, 1843), p.305. This original account is signed by Roberson, ‘HMS Terror, Van D[iemen’s] Land 9th Sept. 1840.’
Inscribed below: ‘This sketch is intended to point out one of the few irregularities of the usual basaltic strata, which have been observed. The summit was not reached owing to the hill’s sides being covered with snow, ice and precipitous cliffs. The central hill no doubt mark[s] the site of a large volcano. Height judged to be about 2,000 feet. The largest river seen during the Expedition up this bay, past in front of these hills…falling into Central Bay, near what we called Teal Bay.’
John Robertson was the surgeon aboard HMS Terror during James Clarke Ross’s Erebus and Terror Antarctic Expedition of 1839-1843.
Headed ‘Sketch the 5th’ in the manuscript version of the paper ‘Catalogue of geological specimens procured at “Kerguelen” during the months of May, June & July 1840’, by John Robertson. The paper was read by the author to the Royal Society on 20 May 1841 and noted in Abstracts of the papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London from 1837 to 1843 inclusive vol.4 (Richard and John E Taylor, London, 1843), p.305. This original account is signed by Roberson, ‘HMS Terror, Van D[iemen’s] Land 9th Sept. 1840.’
Inscribed below: ‘This sketch is intended to point out one of the few irregularities of the usual basaltic strata, which have been observed. The summit was not reached owing to the hill’s sides being covered with snow, ice and precipitous cliffs. The central hill no doubt mark[s] the site of a large volcano. Height judged to be about 2,000 feet. The largest river seen during the Expedition up this bay, past in front of these hills…falling into Central Bay, near what we called Teal Bay.’
John Robertson was the surgeon aboard HMS Terror during James Clarke Ross’s Erebus and Terror Antarctic Expedition of 1839-1843.
Associated place