SOUTH

See also:

• GEORGIA

GEORGIA  , an uninhabited British island in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 900 M . S. by E. of the Falklands, in 54 -55° S., 36°–38° W.; area 1600 sq. m . It is mountainous, with snowy peaks 6000 to 8000 ft. high, their slopes furrowed with deep gorges filled with glaciers . Its geological constitution—gneiss and argillaceous schists, with no trace of fossils—shows that the island is, like the Falklands, a surviving fragment of some greater land-mass now vanished, most probably indicating a former extension of the Andean system . At Royal Bay, on the south-east side, was stationed the German expedition sent out to observe the transit of Venus in 1882 . The island would be well suited for cattle or sheep farming but for its damp, foggy climate . The flora is surprisingly rich, and the German naturalists were able to collect thirteen flowering plants, mostly common also to the Falklands, but one allied to a form found in distant New Zealand . South Georgia is politically attached to the Falklands .