Adventures of the Explorers 157 



"A few years since," says the North Ameri- 

 can Review (January, 1834), "two Russian dis- 

 covery ships came in sight of a group of cold, 

 inhospitable islands in the Antarctic Ocean. 

 The commander imagined himself a discoverer, 

 and doubtless was prepared, with drawn sword 

 and with the flag of his sovereign flying over his 

 head, to take possession in the name of his Czar. 

 At this time he was becalmed in a dense fog. 

 Judge of his surprise, when the fog cleared away, 

 to see a little sloop from Connecticut, as quietly 

 riding between his ships as if lying on the waters 

 of Long Island Sound. He learned from the 

 captain that the islands were already well known, 

 and that the sloop had just returned from ex- 

 ploring the shores of a new land at the south; 

 upon which the Russian gave vent to an ex- 

 pression too harsh to be repeated, but sufficiently 

 significant of his opinion of American enter- 

 prise." 



The day of the explorers was the Golden Era 

 of the whalers, and of all American, seamen. 

 "Often adventures which Vancouver dedicates 

 three chapters to, these men accounted unworthy 



