42 THE ANTARCTIC. 



The presence, too, of penguins and other birds led the 

 great explorer to conjecture that he was in the neighbour- 

 hood of land. In this, we must now admit, he was right, 

 for there is scarcely a doubt that the ice-hills, which 

 increased towards the south, so that one height always 

 seemed to the eye to tower above the other, were nothing 

 but ice-clad summits of land, while the level and rising 

 mass of Mat ice was the northern edge of the ice 

 descending from the land into the sea. 



Cook now rapidly retreated north, intending to find 

 the land long ago seen by Juan Fernandez — a vain 

 endeavour, since this had probably been New Zealand. 

 He wished then to make for the Marquesas group, 

 taking Easter Island on the way. The southern winter 

 was spent in exploring and discovering, or rediscover- 

 ing, numerous Pacific Island groups, such as the New 

 Hebrides and New Caledonia. Thence he returned to 

 New Zealand, and on the ioth of November started on 

 the voyage to Cape Horn, keeping to latitude 50° to 6o° S. 

 He thus proved that there was no extensive continent in 

 that part of the Pacific. After making surveys of the 

 coasts of Tierra del Fuego and Staaten Island, he steered 

 south-east to latitude 58° 10' S. and longitude 53 54' 

 W., to seek the Golfo San Sebastiano and its coasts, as 

 indicated by Mercator and his successors. His search 

 was of course fruitless, as no such land exists. On the 

 other hand fortune favoured him in the rediscovery of 

 the island of San Pedro, for which he next made, and 

 which he really found on the 14th of January, 1775, and 

 renamed South Georgia, regardless of the rights of 

 previous discoverers. From the 16th to the 23rd of 

 January the north coast was explored and laid down with 

 all possible accuracy. In this undertaking they were 

 greatly assisted by the shelter afforded by several deep 

 bays. After exploring to the extreme east end of the 

 island, and discovering various small islands and rocks 



