ADDRESS. 31 



bud again bursts from its calyx, while the bough from "which its 

 beauties are unfolding is still bowed down by the weight of ripen- 

 ing fruit ; to the sterile regions of eternal snow and " thick-ribbed 

 ice," along the confines of the Antarctic circle. Yes, I repeat it ! 

 five years of adventure, with every opportunity of observation, 

 have impressed upon my mind the strong and abiding conviction, 

 that such an expedition as that now proposed, is called for by 

 considerations of honour, interest, humanity, and imperious duty. 



Is this the language of enthusiasm, excited by a spirit of wild 

 adventure, unconnected with sober reality, and unsustained by 

 well authenticated facts ? If there be any of my hearers of this 

 opinion, especially among those whose duty it is to investigate 

 and decide on all matters of national concern, we must bespeak 

 their attention for yet a few moments longer. . 



For a number of years after our whaleships had doubled Cape 

 Horn, their voyages were made up along the Spanish Main. As 

 their number increased, new grounds were sought, and portions 

 of the ocean traversed which lay far from the usual track of mer- 

 chantmen. In these untried paths, new reefs, new islands, and 

 new dangers, were constantly encountered, and their situation 

 noted down in the log-books and journals of vessels as they 

 chanced to fall in their way. On their return to the United 

 States, these discoveries generally formed a paragraph, which 

 went the rounds of the press, and then sunk into oblivion. Often, 

 however, it was seized upon by some European constructer of 

 maps, and placed in the charts as an important acquisition to 

 geography, but without mentioning the names, or alluding to the 

 nation of the discoverers from whose individual exertions such 

 information had been derived. For more than thirty years have 

 these contributions to the common stock of knowledge been 

 annually made, until the result presents a picture of more daring 

 and successful enterprise than is to be found in the annals of any 

 other nation. And this, too, has been as silently and unobtru- 



