356 THE RENEWAL OF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION. 



Antarctic regious. The unknown lands of Ptolemy and other geogra- 

 phers, though now cut oflt' from the nortliern continents, still retained 

 their place on charts down to the second voyage of James Cook, under 

 the names of Sonthern Ethioi)ia, the Austral Continent, Magellanica, 

 Regio Brasilio, and Eegio Fatal is. On a globe dated 1534, which I 

 lately examined at Weimar, mountains, lakes, and rivers arc shown on 

 a largeextentof land in the Pacific, stretching toward the Sontli I'ole. 

 In 1G4:2 Tasman showed that Australia and Van Diennufs Laiiel were 

 surrounded by the ocean to the south, but the west coast of New Zea- 

 land, which he visited, was believed to be a part of the great S(»uthern 

 continent, ami this was hehl by some geograi)hers of the eighteenth 

 century to extend as far east as the island of Juan Fernandez, to be 

 greater in extent than the whole civilized part of Asia, and to contain 

 oO,00(),()0() inhabitants. Here is a part of the dedication of a collec- 

 tion of voyages, published in 1770 by a former hydrographer of the 

 Navy: 



"Not to him — who infatuated with female blandishments, forgot for 

 irh<it he went abroad and hastened back to amuse the European world 

 with stories of oichantmvni in the New-Cytheria; but to — the man — 

 who emulous of Magallianes, and the heroes of former times, undeterred 

 by difticulties, and unsedm^d by pleasure, shall pcrshd through crvry 

 obstacle, and not by chance, but by virtue and good conduct succeed in 

 esiahlislting an intercourse with a southern continent, this historical 

 collection of former discoveries in the kSonth Pacific Ocean is presenied 

 by Alexander Dalryniple.*' 



About this time a French navigator reported the discovery of laud 

 to the southeast of the Cape of Good Hope, and a French expedition 

 under j\L de Kerguelen was sent out in 177li to exi)lore it. Kerguelen 

 sighted land with high mountains in latitude 49° south and longitude 

 69° east, sent a boat on shore, and rather precipitately concluded that 

 he had discovered the great southern continent. On his return to 

 France he was hailed as a second Columbus, but on being sent out a 

 second time to(;oniplete his discovery, the supposed southern continent 

 turned out to be the almost barren island which now bears Kerguelen's 

 name. 



During his first expedition James Cook showed that New Zealand 

 was an island, and that there was no S(nithern continent in the Pacific 

 north of the parallel of 40° south. Cook's second ex])edition in 1772 

 was undertaken with the express purpose of settling once for all this 

 question of a southern continent, and he crossed the whole southern 

 ocean in such a manner as to leave no room for doubt that, if such a 

 continent did exist, it must be situated within the Antarctic Circle, and 

 must be covered with perpetual snow and ice. 



Cook reached latitude 71° 10' south, in longitude 106° 54' west, and 

 here he probably saw the ice-barrier and mountains beyond. He 

 believed there was a tract of land toward the South Pole extending 



