462 T. W. E. DAVID, W. F. SMEETH, AND J. A. SCHOFIELD. 
eastern New Guinea, the Tonga Islands and New Zealand back 
to Antarctica, ending in the volcanic zone of Victoria Land. 
About fifteen extinct, five active, and three dormant (’) volcanoes 
have been recorded as occurring in the Antarctic Regions, (if the 
South Shetlands be included under this term), the highest known 
peak, Mount Melbourne, attaining an altitude of about 15,000 
feet. 
(2) Summary of the History of Antarctic Exploration.—Want 
of access to the necessary literature precludes us from doing more 
than traversing cursorily the records of a few of the chief Antarctic 
Explorers. The honour of being the first man to discover the 
Antarctic Continent probably belongs to Captain James Cook, 
who in the year 1772 reached latitude 71° 10’S., in longitude 
106° 54’ W., where he sighted the Great Ice Barrier, which forms 
the seaward boundary of Antarctica. Speaking of this discovery 
Sir James Ross says!:—“I confidently believe with D’'Urville 
that the enormous mass of ice which bounded his view, when at 
his extreme south latitude, was a range of mountainous land 
covered with snow.” 
In 1819 William Smith in the brig William discovered the 
Archipelago of the South Shetlands, South of Cape Horn. 
In 1820-23 Weddell visited the South Shetlands, including the 
the active volcano Bridgman. Powell, the discoverer of the 
South Orkneys, visited the volcanic island of Bridgman in 1822, 
and found it to be at that time two hundred feet high. Weddell, 
who visited it during the following year, estimates its height at 
four hundred feet, and describes the island as being of sugarloaf 
shape, whereas at the time of Powell’s visit there was a crater 0” 
the west side of the island. Possibly the crater had disappeared 
at the time of the subsequent visit of Weddell, as he makes 10 
mention of it. Weddell penetrated to 74° S. in 1823, thus 
attaining a higher latitude than Captain Cook, but he s4W no 
land anywhere in that neighbourhood. 
agin pe 
1 Voyage in the South Seas. By Sir James C. Ross. Vol. 1., p- 276 
