EXPLORING ANTARCTIC SEAS 



at Canberra, Australia, where other reHcs of AustraHan 

 and Antarctic exploration are gradually being gathered. 



We may summarize his first and third voyages as 

 follows. In the first he doubled Cape Horn from the 

 east and observed the transit of Venus at Tahiti. He 

 discovered and charted the east coasts of both New 

 Zealand and Australia, and returned home through 

 Torres Straits between New^ Guinea and Australia. He 

 reached England in July, 1771. His third voyage was 

 chiefly directed to the North Pacific in an attempt to 

 reach the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Behring 

 Straits. This has, of course, not been done to this 

 day, though several ships have managed to make the 

 voyage in the opposite direction, like the ''Vega" 

 (1878-9) along Siberia, and the ''Gjoa" (1903-6) 

 along Canada. Cook discovered many islands in the 

 Pacific and surveyed much of the northwest American 

 coast. He was killed at Haw^aii in February, 1779. 



It was in his second voyage, however, in which he 

 ''put a girdle round the earth, and had enough over 

 to tie the knot." Dalrymple, a well-known writer of 

 this period, was convinced that there existed a great 

 continent around the South Pole. He wrote in a let- 

 ter to the King, "That unknown part is a quarter of 

 the whole globe, and so capacious that it may contain 

 in it double the kingdoms and provinces of all those 

 your Majesty is at present lord of." Cook left Eng- 

 land in July, 1772, and his first object was to survey 

 Bouvet "Land." They sighted ice on December loth 

 and soon proved that Bouvet Land was not part of a 

 large continent, for they sailed in open water far to 



15 



