56 THE ANTARCTIC. 



vestigating the immediate neighbourhood of the bay. 

 The actual winter was spent on the Falkland Isles, for 

 which they set sail on the 17th of April, intending to 

 winter there till the beginning of October. Weddell's 

 plan was to load his vessels with seal-skins during the 

 summer of 1823-4, having so far had but little oppor- 

 tunity on this voyage. To his great surprise he found 

 the islands barricaded by a broad zone of dense pack-ice, 

 so that it was impossible, in spite of strenuous exertions, 

 to approach them. He saw himself compelled to sail for 

 Cape Horn, and there to await the summer season. 

 While he was engaged in the survey of the neighbour- 

 hood of the cape, the cutter had succeeded in reaching 

 the South Shetland Isles and laying in a rich store of 

 skins. In January, 1824, Weddell left the waters of 

 Tierra del Fuego and returned to England by way of 

 the Falkland Isles and Monte Video in July of the same 

 year. 



The results of Weddell's voyage, in spite of its com- 

 paratively limited extent, were nevertheless important. 

 For one thing, he had ascertained that the newly dis- 

 covered land in high latitudes to the east nowhere reached 

 the meridian of 30 ; secondly, he was the first to point 

 out that after forcing a passage through the pack-ice, 

 which is nowhere so dense and heavy as in the Arctic 

 zone, and after a perilous passage through masses of 

 numerous icebergs, the sea in the higher latitudes was 

 singularly free from ice. His greatest success, however, 

 must be admitted to be a moral success, for he broke the 

 ban under which Cook had laid the Antarctic, not only 

 in reaching the highest latitude attained by Cook, but 

 indeed in surpassing him by three degrees, and this with 

 two small, insignificant vessels. Moreover, his discoveries 

 had been made by the way, as it were, without the 

 ordinary preparation and outfit of an actual voyage of 

 discovery. It would be unjust, indeed, to attribute to 



