THE POLAR SEAS. 51 



formed which is spread over the vast Southern Ocean. I cannot 

 believe that the ice could extend itself so far if it had not land and 

 I venture to say land of considerable extent to the south. I believe, 

 nevertheless, that the greater part of this southern continent ought 

 to lie within the Polar Circle, where the sea is so encumbered with ice 

 as to be unapproachable. The danger run in surveying a coast in 

 these unknown seas is so great, that I dare to say no one will venture 

 to go farther than I have, and that the land that lies to the south 

 will always remain unknown. The fogs are there too dense ; the 

 snowstorms and tempests too frequent ; the cold too severe ; all the 

 dangers of navigation too numerous. The appearance of the coast is 

 the most horrible that can be imagined. The country is condemned 

 by nature to remain unvisited by the sun, and buried under eternal 

 hoar frost. After this report, I believe that we shall hear no more of 

 a southern continent." This description of these desolate regions, to 

 which the great navigator might have applied the words of Pliny, 

 "Pars mundi a natura damnata et densa mersa caligine" only 

 excited the courage of his successors. In our days, several expeditions 

 have been fitted out for the express survey of regions which may be 

 characterised as the abode of cold, silence, and death. In 1833, a 

 free passage opened itself into the Antarctic Sea. The Scottish 

 whaling ship, commanded by James "Weddell, entered the pack ice, 

 and penetrated it in pursuit of seals ; but having, by chance, found 

 the sea open on his course, he forced his way up to seventy-four 

 degrees south latitude, and under the thirty-fourth degree of longitude, 

 but the season was too advanced, and he and his crew retraced their 

 steps. The voyage of Captain Weddell caused a great sensation, and 

 suggested the possibility of more serious expeditions. Twelve years 

 later three great expeditions were fitted out : one, under Dumont 

 D'Urville, of the French Marine ; an American expedition, under 

 Captain Wilkes, of the "United States Navy; and an English ex- 

 pedition, under Sir James Clark Eoss. 



Dumont D'Urville, who perished so miserably in the railway 

 catastrophe at Versailles, in 1842, passed the Straits of Magellan on 

 the 9th of January, 1838, having under his command the two 

 corvettes Astrolabe and ZeUe. He expected to find it as Weddell had 

 described, and that, after passing the first icy barrier, he should find 

 an open sea before him. But he was soon compelled to renounce this 



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