DISCOVERIES TOWARDS THE SOUTH POLE. 279 



Weddell, whose crews obtained an immense number of sea-elephants and fur seals. These 

 islands are nearly inaccessible, being ice-bound, while almost any part of them, other than 

 perpendicular cliffs, is, perpetually snow-covered. There are a few small patches of straggling 

 grass where there is any soil, and a moss similar to that found in Iceland. In 1821 other 

 additions were made to our knowledge of islands adjacent to the South Shetlands by Captains 

 Powell and Palmer, the latter an American, and by the Russian navigator, Bellinghausen, 

 who reached a very southern point. They are respectively known as Trinity, Palmer's, 

 and Alexander's Lands, A voyage in 1822 has importance, as it led to valuable results, 

 in a commercial point of view. The brig Jane, of Leith, Captain Weddell, with a crew 

 of twenty-two officers and men, accompanied by a cutter, set sail in September of that 

 year on a voyage to the South Seas for the purpose of procuring fur seals. At the beginning 

 of January, 1823, the vessels first came in sight of the land of the high southern latitude, 

 and the next day reached the South Orkneys. The tops of the islands mostly terminated 

 in craggy peaks, and looked almost like the mountain tops of a sunken land. Proceeding 

 southward, they one evening passed very close to an object which appeared like a rock. 

 The lead was immediately thrown out, but no bottom could be found. It turned out to 

 be a dead whale, very much swollen, floating on the surface. Weddell obtained at South 

 Georgia a valuable cargo. From the sea-elephant no less than 20,000 tons of oil were 

 obtained in a few seasons, the cargoes always including a large number of fur sealskins. 

 American sealers also took large cargoes of these skins to China, where they sold for five 

 or six dollars a skin. The Island of Desolation, described by Cook, was also a source of 

 great profit. " This is a striking, but by no means uncommon example of the commercial 

 advantage to be derived from voyages of discovery." In 1830, Captain Biscoe, commanding 

 the sealing brig Eliza Scott, made the discovery of another range of islands, since named 

 after him. In 1839, Captain Baliey, in a ship belonging to Messrs. Enderby, the owners 

 of the last-named vessel, discovered land in latitude 66 44' S., which was in all probability 

 a portion of the same territoiy sighted by Wilkes and D'Urville a year afterwards. Thus, 

 while America and France claim the honour of having discovered an " Antarctic continent," 

 Bailey seems to have forestalled them. It is extremely doubtful whether the patches 

 of land seen by these explorers can be considered to form a great southern continent.* 



D'Urville, after describing the "lanes" of tall icebergs by which his ship was 

 enclosed and impeded, states that they sighted land, some few miles off, with prominent 

 peaks 3,000 feet and upwards in height, and surrounded with coast ice. Some boats 

 were sent off to make magnetic observations, and one of the officers succeeded in landing 

 on a small rocky islet, on which the tricolour flag was unfurled. Not the smallest trace 

 of vegetable life could be discovered. Numerous fragments of the rock itself were carried 

 off as trophies. Close at hand were eight or ten other islets. The land thus discovered was 

 named Adelie Land (after Admiral D'Urville's wife). A projecting cape, which had been 

 seen early in the day, was called Cape Discovery, and the islet on which the landing 

 was effected was named Point Geology. 



* Captain Dumont D'TJrville commanded an expedition dispatched by France in 1837 for the express purpose of 

 exploring the Antarctic, and Lieutenant "Wilkes, TJ.S.N. had a similar commission the same year. Wilkes and 

 D'Urville sighted each other's vessels on one occasion, but through a mistake did not communicate. 



