THE NARRATIVE OF CHARLES WILKES. 409 
this fact is not to be received as warranting any general conclusion, on 
account of the occurrence of south-east gales during the intermediate 
time. The trials for currents have, for the most part, shown none to 
exist. The Porpoise, it is true, experienced some, but these were gene- 
rally after a gale. If currents do exist, their tendency is westward, 
which I think the drift of the ice would clearly prove. The difference 
between the astronomic positions and those given by dead-reckoning 
was no avail here as a test,* for the courses of the vessels among the 
ice were so tortuous that the latter couid not be depended upon. 
The winds which prevail from the south-west to the south-east 
occasionally bring clear weather, interrupted by flurries of snow; the 
north wind is light, and brings thick fogs, attended by a rise of tem- 
perature. Extremes of weather are experienced in rapid succession, 
and it is truly a fickle climate. 
The evidence that an extensive continent lies within the icy barrier 
must have appeared in the account of my proceedings, but will be, I 
think, more forcibly exhibited by a comparison with the aspect of other 
lands in the same southern parallel. Palmer’s Land, for instance, which 
is in like manner invested with ice, is so at certain seasons of the year 
only, while at others it is quite clear, because strong currents prevail 
there which sweep the ice off to the north-east. Along the Antarctic 
Continent for the whole distance explored, which is upwards of 1500 
miles, no open strait is found. The coast, where the ice permitted 
approach, was found enveloped with a perpendicular barrier, in some 
cases unbroken for fifty miles. If there were only a chain of islands, 
the outline of the ice would undoubtedly be of another form; and it is 
scarcely to be conceived that so long a chain could extend so nearly in 
the same parallel of latitude. The land has none of the abruptness of 
termination that the islands of high southern latitudes exhibit; and 
I am satisfied that it exists in one uninterrupted line of coast, from 
Ringgold’s Knoll, in the east, to Enderby’s Land, in the west; that the 
coast (at longitude 95° E.) trends to the north, and this will account 
for the icy barrier existing, with little alteration, where it was seen by 
Cook in 1773. The vast number of ice-islands conclusively points out 
that there is some extensive nucleus which retains them in their posi- 
tion ; for I can see no reason why the ice should not be disengaged 
from islands, if they were such, as happens in all other cases in like 
latitudes. The formation of the coast is different from what would 
probably be found near islands, soundings being obtained in compara- 
tively shoal water; and the colour of the water also indicates that it 
is not like other southern lands, abrupt and precipitous. ‘This cause is 
sufficient to retain the huge masses of ice, by their being attached by 
their lower surfaces instead of their sides only. 
* The fact of there being no northerly current along this extended line of coast is a 
strong proof in my mind of its being a continent, instead of a range of islands. 
