A sounding-line was much used between Staten Island and the South Shetlands. It allowed us to find out that Drake Strait is the prolongation of the oceanic basin of the Pacific. At a short distance from Staten Island the continental plateau falls abruptly from 296 metres to 1574 metres; farther south we find 4040 metres; then the bottom rises gently towards the South Shetlands, which rest themselves upon a continental plateau. These soundings bring forth an important argument for those who, like myself, believe in the independence of the American and antarctic continents. The chain of the Andes, first directed from north to south, bends or inclines towards the east to Tierra del Fuego, and takes a west-easterly direction in Staten Island. Perhaps also this curve is in the direction of the north-east through the Falkland Islands. In the same manner the chains of Grahamland are divided from south-west to north-east, and through the South Shetlands from west to east, a direction which, in the South Orkney Isles, leans slightly towards the south-east. It seems to me that there is here a system of divergent chains. Other people, however, connect these two chains by means of a vast hypothetical curve. It is evident that this question can only be solved by the oceanographical study of the region comprised between New Georgia of the south and Drake Strait. In Drake Strait the temperature of the superficial sheet of water is above 0°, but below its surface the temperature descends to -1°, to ascend again from 200 metres thereabout, and maintains itself in the depths above 0°, at the bottom (3660 metres), where it is +0.6°; the whole column of water cools progressively towards the south. The sheet of cold water signalled below its surface has the shape of a wedge, whose point is directed north and whose base is south. This sheet of cold water increases in thickness towards the south, and nears the surface at the same time. It is due to the presence and melting of icebergs. In the region situated between longitudes 75° and 103° west, and from latitude 69° to latitude 71° 30′ south, the temperature of the water is somewhat diverse.