440 Mr. J. Croll on the Change in the Obliquity of the Ecliptic, 



circle. As to the existence of an antarctic continent there are, 

 I presume, few well informed on the subject who entertain a 

 doubt, whatever their views may be regarding its extent. If we 

 examine the matter carefully, we shall find that we have every 

 reason to believe that this continent extends, on an average, 

 down to about latitude 70° S. It is only at a very few points 

 that voyagers have been able to penetrate the "pack" and 

 reach to anything like high latitudes. But it has been found 

 that wherever a high latitude was reached land icas generally 

 seen. For example, lat. 66° 30' was reached by M. D'Urville 

 in long. 140°, and Adelie Land was found. Lat. 65° was 

 reached by Balleny in long. 120° E., and Sabrina Land was 

 found. Lat. 67° was reached by Biscoe, in long. 60° and 50° 

 E., and Kemp Land and Enderby Land were found. Lat. 63° 

 and 68° were reached by Biscoe, between long. 60° and 70° W., 

 and Graham Land was found. In the year 1774 Capt. Cook 

 reached lat. 71° 10', in long. 106° 54' W., and saw to the south 

 a very extensive field of ice. And he at the time expressed it 

 as his opinion that the ice covered a continent reaching to the 

 south pole*. About long. 180° Victoria Land was discovered, 

 and the great ice-barrier attached to it traced by Sir James 

 Ross for several hundreds of miles. A perpendicular wall of ice, 

 similar to that described by Sir James Ross, had been pre- 

 viously traced by the United States Exploring Expedition under 

 Capt. Wilkes, from near the longitude of Victoria Land, in lat. 

 65°, along in the direction of Enderby Land, for a distance of 

 upwards of 1500 miles. Along this extended coast-line nothing 

 in the shape of an open strait, or of a current in a northerly direc- 

 tion, was found, which seems to show, as Capt. Wilkes remarks, 

 that the ice-barrier must be attached to an unbroken tract of Ian df. 

 It is extremely probable that these various tracts of land are 

 but different parts of one great continent extending to the 

 south pole. If they are islands, it is singular that none of them 

 have been circumnavigated. Besides, were they merely islands, 

 it is difficult to conceive how there should be such prodigious 

 masses of icebergs on the southern hemisphere, extending 

 down in all directions to such comparatively low latitudes. If 

 those various tracts of land are parts of one great continent, then 

 this continent will on an average extend down to lat. 70°. I 

 may mention that Sir Charles Lyell, who has given much atten- 

 tion to this subject, has, in his late edition of the ( Principles/ 

 represented the antarctic continent as extending down to about 

 lat. 70°. 



* Cook's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 86. 



t Narrative of United States Exploring Expedition: Whittaker and Co., 

 London. 



