354 ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 



and those given by dead-reckoning, was of no avail here as a test,* 

 for the courses of the vessels among the ice were so tortuous, that 

 the latter could not be depended upon. 



The winds which prevail from the southwest to the southeast occa- 

 sionally bring clear weather, interrupted by flurries of snow; the 

 north wind is light, and brings thick fogs, attended by a rise of 

 temperature. Extremes of weather are experienced in rapid succes- 

 sion, 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 craite clear, because 

 strong currents prevail there, which sweep the ice off to the northeast. 

 Along the Antarctic Continent for the whole distance explored, which 

 is upwards of fifteen hundred 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 un- 

 doubtedly 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 position ; 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 for- 

 mation of the coast is different from what would probably be found 

 near islands, soundings being obtained in comparatively 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 



* 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. 



