ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE AND RESEARCH 



27th. During the next few months he cruised along 

 the edge of the pack, often within the Antarctic Circle. 

 He was able to show that no land existed far south 

 of Cook's cruises (see A and E, Figure 3) in these 

 waters. He reached Sydney at the end of March, 

 1820. After a cruise in the Pacific, Bellingshausen 

 again sailed south and made a wonderful voyage again 

 very largely within the Antarctic Circle. On the 

 twenty-second of January, 1821, he sighted Peter 

 Island (see Figure 7) and a week later Alexander 

 Land far to the east (see P and A, Figure 3). Early 

 next month he met Palmer and other whalers near 

 Graham Land, and thence returned to Russia. His 

 voyage had ''lopped off" the projecting unknown areas 

 which Cook did not traverse ; and his discovery of land 

 so far south as 68° S. remained a record until the 

 wonderful voyage of Ross in 1841. 



One of the most fortunate voyages in Antarctic his- 

 tory was that of Captain Weddell in a brig of 160 tons. 

 His main object was to hunt for seals, but finding the 

 region to the south of South Georgia remarkably free 

 from ice, he and his consort (a boat of 60 tons) de- 

 termined to push south as far as was possible. On the 

 eighteenth of February, 1823, he reached 73° S., and 

 not a particle of ice was to be seen (see Figure 3), 

 though they were some two hundred miles nearer the 

 Pole than Cook's record. On the twentieth he turned 

 back at 74° 15', for his ships and equipment were 

 not intended for exploration. 



The famous merchants, the Enderby Brothers of 

 London, encouraged the captains of their whaling fleet 



20 



