t 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. It is
somewhat remarkable that, although vast flocks of birds were seen, and
other usual indications of land, and although, south of the Shetlands,
unknown coasts were observed from the masthead tending southwardly,
Weddell discourages the idea of land existing