AMERICAN SEALERS 
97 
him to aid in surveying. Dr. Young of H. M. S. Slaney* 
also volunteered, as a surgeon was considered necessary, 
and the brig sailed on December 19th. 
Bransfield reached the new land on January 16th, 
1820, and remained off its coasts until March 21st, fol- 
lowing it for 9 0 or io° to the eastward and about 3 0 from 
north to south. He sailed amongst the islands and 
charted them, going as far south as 64° 30', but did not 
apparently determine whether the land was entirely in- 
sular or in part continental. He landed at one point at 
least and found the only vegetation to consist of stunted 
grass. Trees were entirely absent. 
The question as to the priority of discovery by Dirk 
Gerritsz is hardly worth discussing as the evidence on 
which his connection with the South Shetlands is based 
is now known to be so very slight. Slight though it 
was, however, it would apparently have led to the dis- 
covery of the group in 1820 whether Smith had 
sighted it or not. 
Stonington, Connecticut, a small town of seafaring 
folk, now comes into prominence as a centre of the 
southern sealing enterprise of the United States. Fleets 
of small vessels were fitted out there year after year, 
and the pluck of their skippers and crews led them often 
far into the Antarctic regions. Amongst the many cap- 
tains who sailed out of Stonington a few have become 
famous and left their names as memorials on the lands 
they explored and despoiled. The first experiment of 
* An amusing error has crept into several books of reference 
through Dr. Young dating an anonymous description of the cruise, 
which appeared in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal from “ H. 
M. S. Slaney.” The address was taken for a signature and a 
mythical Mr. Slaney has thus been credited with the authorship 
of the account. 
7 
