ANTARCTIC EXPLORERS AND THEIR DEEDS 



JAMES COOK, 1772-75 



Resolution and Adventtire 

 [The course is indicated on the chart by a white line.] 



There was little definite knowledge of lands lying in 

 the far south until Captain Cook, a young man of the 

 British Navy (who, by the way, had gained distinction in 

 North America at the siege of Quebec), sailed to the South 

 Pacific (1 768-1 771) to observe the transit of Venus, and 

 in doing so passed south of New Zealand and thus cor- 

 rected the belief that this island was a part of an extensive 

 Antarctic continent. 



Later, in 1772, Cook was commissioned by the British 

 Admiralty to command two vessels and to examine into the 

 question of the existence of a great southern continent. 

 He sailed from Plymouth in July, reached Cape Town in 

 October, and entered the area of this chart near the 20th 

 meridian of east longitude. He took an easterly course, 

 then one abruptly south, and, on January 17, 1773, was the 

 first person to cross the Antarctic Circle. Further progress 

 being blocked by the ice, Cook took a northerly course. 

 He missed the Crozet and Kerguelen islands (which lie 

 without the area of the present map, but may be noted 

 on the small globe). He then turned to the south, and 

 crossed the 60th parallel near the 90th meridian, the ice 



