ISLAND BRITAIN CEDED TO NORWAY NOW REPORTED ICEBERG

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6886, 16 April 1929, Page 5

ISLAND BRITAIN CEDED TO NORWAY NOW REPORTED ICEBERG

ALLEGED LAND LOCATED 1000 MILES SOUTH OF CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. LONDON, March 20. tt a year ago the peace of the world was shattered by the news that Norway was claiming an island 1500 miles south of the Cape of Good Hope which Great Britain maintained was tiers, says the Daily Telegraph. It continues: “Last November we breathed again.* With wonted magnanimity our Foreign Office waived all and any British claim to Bouvet Island. And now comes the news that it is not an island at all but an iceberg. The magnanimity of the Foreign plhce thus appears less than the original estimate, though its wisdom shines brighter than “But we take this iceberg story with every kind of suspicion, though even if true it would not be unique of its kind. Many mythical islands have been put on maps. In the far. Antarctic Sir James Ross, charted one ; bv the name of “ Doubtful Island ’ . because he could not make out whether it was land or au iceberg. It turned out to be mere ice. These remote lonely southern seas provided navigators with many imaginary landfalls. j “Close to Bouvet Island itself another has been reported and called by the name of ‘Thompson.’ Captain Norris in 1825 saw a second island to the northeast and a cluster of others.. But nobody else can find them. Shall wo believe Bouvet Island a myth or an iceberg? It cannot be. In 1898 a 1 German oceanographic expedition landed. They reported it a volcanic cone 3000 feet high, coming down to the sea in steep cliffs pentagonal in shape and five miles across. How can it have become an iceberg? How do . these tales of the sea get told?”