e are called upon to exercise
this self-denial. It is wrong to waste in unavailing regrets the
time we have still to be together, and be gloomy and sad for a whole
month. No! that cannot possibly improve our affairs, and will only
unfit us for the performance of our duty, and increase our misery.
Come, wipe away those glistening tears, my children, or they will
freeze on your cheeks; for, if I mistake not, we are supposed to be
somewhere about the sixtieth parallel of south latitude, and the
thermometer somewhat below Zero. Come, see who will find the
situation first. George, try what you can do."

The children commenced their search, and before George exclaimed
"South Shetland, dear mamma!" every eye, although still dimmed with
tears, was eagerly in quest of the desired parallel.

MRS. WILTON. "Right, George! I fear it will not be prudent to
venture any further south, as we may encounter some ice-islands, for
there are several in this vicinity; but I should like to hear, if
any of you can tell me why Deception Isle (one of the South Shetland
group) is so called?"

DORA. "It is so called from its very exact resemblance to a ship in
full sail, and has deceived many navigators. This island is
inhabited only by penguins, sea-leopards, pintadors, and various
kinds of petrels. It is volcanic, apparently composed of alternate
layers of ashes and ice, as if the snow of each winter, during a
series of years, had been prevented from melting in the following
summer by the ejection of cinders and ashes from some part where
volcanic action is still in progress; and that such is the case
seems probable, from the fact of there being at least one hundred
and fifty holes from which steam issues with a loud hissing noise,
and which are, or were, visible from the top of one of the hills
immediately above the small cone where Lieutenant Kendall's ship was
secured, to whom I am indebted for this information."

MRS. WILTON. "The only habitable islands near here are the Sandwich
Isles (not Captain Cook's) and Georgia; but they are neither large,
numerous, nor important: we will, therefore, round the Cape and
enter the Pacific Ocean."

DORA "According to Emma's chart we are to follow the coast, calling
at as many of the islands as are worthy of notice; but, previously,
here are the bays to be enumerated, and such a number of them! I
could scarcely have imagined it possible for any shores to be so
indented."

EMMA. "I need not read al