AN ANTARCTIC CONTINENT 



months since at Sydney; and, what is of more general 

 interest, they tell us of the discovery of an immense con- 

 tinent occupying the greater part of the area within the 

 Antarctic Circle. The Vincennes first fell in with the 

 land in longitude 97 E., between 66 and 67 south lati- 

 tude. A high range of mountains appeared over the icy 

 barrier that intervened. They followed along the barrier 

 to the eastward, observing the land seven or eight times 

 in the course of forty-five degrees of longitude, and again 

 saw indistinctly indications of it in 165 E. The barrier 

 of ice forms a nearly continuous bank through the whole 

 of this distance, and has been surveyed as if a line of 

 coast. Its firmness and general appearance leave no 

 doubt that the whole is connected into a single vast con- 

 tinent, and we may say that we have traced it for at least 

 1 500 miles. After this running along the barrier for about 

 seventy degrees of longitude, the Vincennes found herself 

 in a deep bay, and the ice trending to the northward. 

 This stopped farther progress to the eastward along that 

 latitude, and the ship was some days in beating to the 

 northward to pursue again an easterly course along the 

 barrier. They at last found the barrier again resuming 

 its easterly direction, and in the same latitude that Cook 

 fell in with it, and not far west of his position. These 

 facts appear to imply that the land also trends to the 

 northward at this place, and afterwards continues again 

 its easterly course. They had delightful weather most of 

 the time, and were enabled to sail quite close to the bar- 

 rier. The Vincennes was only ten or a dozen hours in 

 advance of the French expedition in the first discovery 

 of the land. The Astrolabe and Ze'le f e J according to a re- 

 port by the commander, in the Hobart Town (Van Die- 

 men's Land) papers, fell in with it on the evening of the 

 iQth of January, and the Vincennes has it logged as seen 

 on the morning of the same day, close on our heels, but 

 not before us. The French vessels were satisfied with a 

 sight of one place alone, and immediately returned to 

 Hobart Town. The crew have been in a wretched state 

 with the scurvy, and I understand that previous to the 

 cruise south they had lost thirty men within a few months, 

 and among the number four officers. We have had no 

 sickness on board, or very little indeed, and the officers 

 have all returned in better health than when they left. 



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