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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
base of operations at Deception Island, 
where seals were so plentiful that 50,598 
sealskins were taken in one season, 
1820-1821. The smallest vessel of the 
fleet was the sloop Hero, 44.5 tons, 
commanded by a youth of 21 years, 
Capt. Nathaniel Brown Palmer. While 
at the lookout maintained on the vol- 
canic crater near Yankee Harbor, one 
of the sealing captains, Benjamin Pen- 
dleton, on a clear day discovered snow- 
capped peaks outlined against the south- 
ern horizon. 
Realizing that the wholesale destruc- 
tion of seals must soon exhaust the local 
supply, Captain Palmer, in an interval 
of fine weather, sailed soiithward, in 
January, 1821, to search for new fishing 
grounds. Reaching the new and hitherto 
unknown land, only some 70 miles dis- 
tant, Palmer skirted its northwestern 
coasts, which he found to be a moun- 
tainous, snow - covered region, entered 
several bays, and saw sea leopards, 
though finding no seals. His farthest 
point in that voyage was about 68° S. 
latitude, 59° W. longitude. In his 
homeward passage Palmer fell in with 
the Russian exploring expedition com- 
manded by Capt. F. G. von Bellings- 
hausen, which, after an unparalleled 
voyage through Antarctic waters, had 
discovered the islands of Peter I and of 
Alexander. These were possibly the first 
seen, and certainly the first charted and 
named, land within the Antarctic circle. 
Palmer gave Bellingshausen full infor- 
mation as to his own voyage and dis- 
coveries. 
Dr. Hugh Robert Mill, in his generally 
accurate and fair-minded "Siege of the 
South Pole," 1905, unfortunately follows 
the British attitude of indirectly dis- 
crediting Palmer's story as to the Rus- 
sian admiral, saying (page 100) : "It 
seems strange that if informed of the 
whereabouts of Palmer Land he (Bel- 
lingshausen) made no reference to that 
fact in his own book." 
However, Dr. Henryk Arctowski, a 
Belgian professor, a Russian scholar, 
and an Antarctic explorer and expert, 
supports Palmer by a citation. In "The 
Antarctic Voyage of the Belgica" (in the 
GeograpJiical Journal, 1901, 18:353-394), 
Arctowski states that "this meeting was 
also described by Bellingshausen himself, 
as can easily be seen by consulting the 
remarkable but still little-known work of 
that eminent Russian explorer (Dwuk- 
ratnyja, 2:262-264)." It is to be re- 
gretted that Dr. Mill failed to verify the 
citation. 
Mr. E. S. Balch, in his scholarly study 
( "Antarctica," Phila., 1902, page 95), ad- 
mirably summarizes the results of Pal- 
mer's voyages. He ascribes to him, with 
undoubted accuracy : 
1. Certainly the first explorer of the 
land lying south of Bransfield Strait, and 
extending for some 250 kilometers (over 
150 miles) between about 57° 50' and 
62° 20' west longitude; that is, of the 
northern coasts of West Antarctica from 
Liege Island to Joinville Island, both in- 
clusive. 
2. Discovered the northern end of 
Gerlache Strait. 
3. Discovered the strait since called 
Orleans Channel. He also accurately 
adds : "This coast or these islands were 
christened Palmer Land, and they were 
so first charted in England, France, and 
America." 
Palmer never realized that he had dis- 
covered a continent, and had thus placed 
his name among the immortals. Even 
after the discoveries of Wilkes, he 
claimed, in 1847, only the discovery of 
Palmer Land and the credit of sailing 
into the Antarctic Ocean to the distance 
of 340 miles southwest from Yankee 
Harbor. 
However, Captains Edmund Fanning 
and Benjamin Morrell, contemporaneous 
whalers with Palmer, considered the 
land continental. The former writer 
says (Fanning: "A^oyages." page 476): 
"From information that the author has 
in his possession it is presumed that the 
continent of Palmer Land does not ex- 
tend further west than the looth degree 
of west longitude." He adds: "It is re- 
ported that an extensive bank, with from 
60 to 100 fathoms of water over it, has 
been discovered between the latitude of 
66° and 69° south, to the westward of 
140° west longitude, which may be con- 
