Midas Island

Midas Island (in Argentina Isla José Hernández , in Chile Isla Bofill ) is an island off the Danco coast of Graham Land in the north of the Antarctic Peninsula . It is located in Hughes Bay , northwest of Apéndice Island .

Participants in the Belgica expedition (1897–1899) led by the Belgian polar explorer Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery discovered it and described it as an island with two peaks "like the ears of a donkey". The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee took up this description in 1960 when it was named. It is named after Midas , King of Phrygia from Greek mythology , whose ears were made by the god Apollo to two donkey ears. The Argentinean name is named after the Argentinian poet José Hernández (1834–1886). In Chile, the island is named after Lieutenant Luis Bofill de Caso, engineer on the Yelcho in the 15th Chilean Antarctic Expedition (1960–1961).

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