CHAPTER 16


      It had been Captain Guy’s original intention, after satisfying
      himself about the Auroras, to proceed through the Strait of
      Magellan, and up along the western coast of Patagonia; but
      information received at Tristan d’Acunha induced him to steer to
      the southward, in the hope of falling in with some small islands
      said to lie about the parallel of 60 degrees S., longitude 41
      degrees 20’ W. In the event of his not discovering these lands,
      he designed, should the season prove favourable, to push on
      toward the pole. Accordingly, on the twelfth of December, we made
      sail in that direction. On the eighteenth we found ourselves
      about the station indicated by Glass, and cruised for three days
      in that neighborhood without finding any traces of the islands he
      had mentioned. On the twenty-first, the weather being unusually
      pleasant, we again made sail to the southward, with the
      resolution of penetrating in that course as far as possible. Before entering upon this portion of my narrative, it may be as
      well, for the information of those readers who have paid little
      attention to the progress of discovery in these regions, to give
      some brief account of the very few attempts at reaching the
      southern pole which have hitherto been made. That of Captain Cook was the first of which we have any distinct
      account. In 1772 he sailed to the south in the Resolution,
      accompanied by Lieutenant Furneaux in the Adventure. In December
      he found himself as far as the fifty-eighth parallel of south
      latitude, and in longitude 26 degrees 57’ E. Here he met with
      narrow fields of ice, about eight or ten inches thick, and
      running northwest and southeast. This ice was in large cakes, and
      usually it was packed so closely that the vessel had great
      difficulty in forcing a passage. At this period Captain Cook
      supposed, from the vast number of birds to be seen, and from
      other indications, that he was in the near vicinity of land. He
      kept on to the southward, the weather being exceedingly cold,
      until he reached the sixty-fourth parallel, in longitude 38
      degrees 14’ E. Here he had mild weather, with gentle breezes, for
      five days, the thermometer being at thirty-six. In January, 1773,
      the vessels crossed the Antarctic circle, but did not succeed in
      penetrating much farther; for upon reaching latitude 67 degrees
      15’ they found all farther progress impeded by an immense body of
      ice, extending all along the southern horizon as far as the eye
      could reach. This ice was of every variety—and some large floes
      of it, miles in extent, formed a compact mass, rising eighteen or
      twenty feet above the water. It being late in the season, and no
      hope entertained of rounding these obstructions, Captain Cook now
      reluctantly turned to the northward. In the November following he renewed his search in the Antarctic. In latitude 59 degrees 40’ he met with a strong current setting
      to the southward. In December, when the vessels were in latitude
      67 degrees 31’, longitude 142 degrees 54’ W., the cold was
      excessive, with heavy gales and fog. Here also birds were
      abundant; the albatross, the penguin, and the peterel especially. In latitude 70 degrees 23’ some large islands of ice were
      encountered, and shortly afterward the clouds to the southward
      were observed to be of a snowy whiteness, indicating the vicinity
      of field ice. In latitude 71 degrees 10’, longitude 106 degrees
      54’ W., the navigators were stopped, as before, by an immense
      frozen expanse, which filled the whole area of the southern
      horizon. The northern edge of this expanse was ragged and broken,
      so firmly wedged together as to be utterly impassible, and
      extending about a mile to the southward. Behind it the frozen
      surface was comparatively smooth for some distance, until
      terminated in the extreme background by gigantic ranges of ice
      mountains, the one towering above the other. Captain Cook
      concluded that this vast field reached the southern pole or was
      joined to a continent. Mr. J. N. Reynolds, whose great exertions
      and perseverance have at length succeeded in getting set on foot
      a national expedition, partly for the purpose of exploring these
      regions, thus speaks of the attempt of the Resolution. “We are
      not surprised that Captain Cook was unable to go beyond 71
      degrees 10’, but we are astonished that he did attain that point
      on the meridian of 106 degrees 54’ west longitude. Palmer’s Land
      lies south of the Shetland, latitude sixty-four degrees, and
      tends to the southward and westward farther than any navigator
      has yet penetrated. Cook was standing for this land when his
      progress was arrested by the ice; which, we apprehend, must
      always be the case in that point, and so early in the season as
      the sixth of January—and we should not be surprised if a portion
      of the icy mountains described was attached to the main body of
      Palmer’s Land, or to some other portions of land lying farther to
      the southward and westward.”

      In 1803, Captains Kreutzenstern and Lisiausky were dispatched by
      Alexander of Russia for the purpose of circumnavigating the
      globe. In endeavouring to get south, they made no farther than 59
      degrees 58’, in longitude 70 degrees 15’ W. They here met with
      strong currents setting eastwardly. Whales were abundant, but
      they saw no ice. In regard to this voyage, Mr. Reynolds observes
      that, if Kreutzenstern had arrived where he did earlier in the
      season, he must have encountered ice—it was March when he reached
      the latitude specified. The winds, prevailing, as they do, from
      the southward and westward, had carried the floes, aided by
      currents, into that icy region bounded on the north by Georgia,
      east by Sandwich Land and the South Orkneys, and west by the
      South Shetland islands. In 1822, Captain James Weddell, of the British navy, with two
      very small vessels, penetrated farther to the south than any
      previous navigator, and this, too, without encountering
      extraordinary difficulties. He states that although he was
      frequently hemmed in by ice before reaching the seventy-second
      parallel, yet, upon attaining it, not a particle was to be
      discovered, and that, upon arriving at the latitude of 74 degrees
      15’, no fields, and only three islands of ice were visible.