FOR THE SOUTH LAND 
55 
was the beginning of real Antarctic exploration and its 
importance requires the space of a separate chapter. The 
period of vague conjecture as to landfalls, and guess- 
ing at longitudes had come to an end. At last nautical 
instruments were perfected by the universal adoption of 
the quadrant or sextant, and above all by the invention 
of the chronometer. Scientific views were at last able 
to assert themselves even in the presence of political con- 
troversies at home and wars abroad, and the greatest 
of British maritime explorers, the one man who could 
be compared with Columbus and Magellan had appeared 
in the person of James Cook. 
