HISTORY OF DISCOVERY. 53 



-on the 29th of January. Meanwhile it was impossible to 

 approach the land nearer than forty nautical miles out, so 

 that all that could be done was to determine that the land 

 evidently stretched away in a south-westerly direction 

 and that, with trifling- exceptions, it was covered with 

 snow. The cape was found to be situated in latitude 

 68° 43' S. and longitude J 3° IO ' W. ; it received the 

 name of Alexander I.'s Coast. Unfortunately Bellings- 

 hausen did not endeavour to penetrate farther to the 

 north-east, indeed he steered due north as far as latitude 

 60 S., and then made for the South Shetland Isles, of the 

 discovery of which he had probably received information 

 during the course of his voyage. Here he met some of 

 the before-mentioned seal-hunters, Palmer among them, 

 whose information doubtless was serviceable in laying 

 down the islands. At length he steered north by way 

 of the South Orkneys and South Georgia, and returned 

 to Kronstadt in July, 1821, after a voyage of two years. 



Although the achievements of Bellingshausen have 

 not thrown those of Cook into the shade, they are never- 

 theless highly important. He certainly did not reach so 

 high a latitude as Cook, having attained only to i^° short 

 of the point achieved by the English navigator. On 

 the other hand, he six times crossed and recrossed the 

 Antarctic circle, navigated no fewer than 243 meridians 

 of longitude beyond 6o° S. latitude, 46 being within the 

 Antarctic circle ; at several points he saw indications of 

 land ; in two cases at least he incontestably discovered 

 land ; and all this with two slow-sailing vessels, little 

 fitted for progress in ice-bound waters. Concerning the 

 further results of his voyage scarcely anything, unfor- 

 tunately, is known. His rare work was published only 

 in the Russian language, assuredly to the great loss of 

 science. 



Although Bellingshausen, as compared with Cook, 

 had considerably diminished the probability of the exist- 



