Pourquoi Pas Island is a mountainous island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

, 17 miles (27.4 km) long and from 5 to 11 mi (8 to 17.7 km) wide, lying between Bigourdan Fjord

Bigourdan Fjord

Bigourdan Fjord is a sound, long in an east-west direction and averaging wide, lying between Pourquoi Pas Island and the southwest part of Arrowsmith Peninsula, along the west coast of Graham Land. It was discovered by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1908–10, under Jean-Baptiste Charcot, and...

 and Bourgeois Fjord

Bourgeois Fjord

Bourgeois Fjord is an inlet, long in a northeast–southwest direction and wide, lying between the east sides of Pourquoi Pas Island and Blaiklock Island and the west coast of Graham Land. It separates Loubet Coast to the north from Fallières Coast to the south...

 off the west coast of Graham Land

Graham Land

Graham Land is that portion of the Antarctic Peninsula which lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee and the US Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names, in...

. It was discovered by the French Antarctic Expedition

French Antarctic Expedition

French Antarctic Expedition refers to several French expeditions in Antarctica.-First expedition:Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec was a French explorer....

 under Charcot, 1908-10. The island was charted more accurately by the British Graham Land Expedition

British Graham Land Expedition

A British expedition to Graham Land led by John Lachlan Cope took place between 1920 and 1922. The British Graham Land Expedition was a geophysical and exploration expedition to Graham Land in Antarctica between 1934 to 1937. Under the leadership of John Riddoch Rymill, the expedition spent two...

 (BGLE) under Rymill, 1934-37, who named it for Charcot's expedition ship, the Pourquoi-Pas?.

See also

• Composite Antarctic Gazetteer
• List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands
• List of Antarctic islands south of 60° S
• SCAR
  Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
  The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research is an interdisciplinary body of the International Council for Science . It was established in February 1958 to continue the international coordination of Antarctic scientific activities that had begun during the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58...
  
  
• Territorial claims in Antarctica