HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS 



137 



It was Cook's main objective on this voyage to prove or disprove the existence of an 

 Antarctic continent, and on leaving South Georgia — one of his more notable discoveries 

 in the South Atlantic — he sailed south to about lat. 60° S and then turned eastward. 

 On the morning of January 31 land was sighted, and the fog clearing a little, he was able 

 to perceive three rocky islets of considerable height, with, to the east of them, "an 

 elevated coast whose lofty snow-clad summits were seen above the clouds".^ The 



Fig. I . The Falkland Islands and their Dependencies. 



^ Forster, in his Voyage round the World, 11, p. 536 (1777), says: "Thick clouds veiled the upper parts of 

 the mountains, but one immense peak appeared towering beyond them, covered by snow. It was agreed 

 by all present that the perpendicular height of this mountain could not be far short of two miles". 



We are indebted to Dr H. R. Mill for an extract from an unofficial and anonymous account of Cook's 

 voyage, entitled " Journal of the Resolution's voyage in 1772-75 on Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere . . .". 

 It is dated 1775 and was written by James Marra, gunner's mate. The author appears to have been under 

 the impression that both South Georgia and Southern Thule were outlying parts of an Antarctic continent, 

 though Cook was of course well aware that the former was an island. Marra remarks on "the horrid appear- 

 ance the different views of the land exhibited" and, referring apparently to Cape Bristol, says "in some 

 places the mountains rose higher than even Mr Foster, who had traversed the most mountainous parts of 

 Europe, had ever beheld before. Our journalist has given a drawing of one, among many others, which he 

 says, rose seventeen miles above the horizon, and whose top reached higher than the clouds. It was situated 

 about the 59th degree of southern latitude and in east longitude 330 deg. nearly". In the illustration a 

 praiseworthy attempt is made to show a small island 17 miles in height. 



Dr Mill thinks that this grotesque error is to be explained in the following way. Distances may have been 

 entered in the log of the ' Resolution ' as minutes of latitude — meaning miles — and the author, finding a state- 

 ment that the mountain was 17' above the horizon, concluded that these also were miles, without realizing 

 that minutes of arc were intended. 



