396 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part 11 
possible to force a way through this pack, but he thought 
that it would not be justifiable to take a ship like the 
Resolution into such danger. He therefore shaped a 
northern course from this point, arriving at Easter 
Island on the nth March, 1774. 
After making numerous important discoveries during 
the rest of the year 1774, the great navigator left New 
Zealand on November 10th and the Resolution sailed 
across the South Pacific, making for Cape Horn. On 
the 19th of December they anchored in a bay on the 
south-west coast of Tierra del Fuego, called Christmas 
Sound. On the 28th they resumed their voyage, 
rounded Cape Horn, passed through the Strait of Le 
Maire, and sailed along the north coast of Staten Island, 
of which Cook wrote an interesting account. On the 
15th January, 1775, land was sighted in latitude 54 0 , 
consisting of some small islands to which the name of 
South Georgia was given. On the 31st another discovery 
was made, which received the name of Sandwich Land. 
The Cape was reached on March 21st. The expedition 
arrived at Portsmouth in July, 1775- 
Captain Cook had made the circuit of the southern 
ocean in a high latitude, and had entirely swept away 
the vast and imaginary Terra Australis of the map- 
makers. He was, however, of opinion that there was 
continental land of great extent nearer the pole, and that 
he had seen part of it when he was at his extreme south. 
He was thus the first to see land within the Antarctic 
Circle. It was also his belief that the antarctic con- 
tinent extended furthest to the north opposite the 
southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans owing, for one 
reason, to the greater degree of cold. In this he was 
quite correct. 
Many years passed before any further attempts at 
geographical discovery were made in this region. At 
length, however, the Russian Government, in July, 1819, 
sent an expedition to the southern seas, consisting of 
two vessels, the Vostak under Captain Bellingshausen, 
commander of the expedition, and the Mirnyi under 
Captain Lazareff. Bellingshausen, like Cook, made the 
circuit of the southern ocean in high latitudes. He 
