AMERICAN SEALERS 
109 
ingshausen, and Ross, that it is easily credible. There is 
no inherent improbability in the insular character of the 
reported lands behind which Morrell seems to claim to 
have passed ; but there is nothing in his narrative to show 
that he may not have passed to the north of them ; there 
is no improbability in a track of open water being found 
south of the floating pack-ice. The speed of the voyage 
is indeed remarkable and some parts of it almost in- 
credible, but we are not disposed to place much confidence 
in the longitudes assigned, even if we allow that the cruise 
is honestly reported. 
After leaving Sandwich Land Morrell turned south- 
west again, passed through a heavy pack and came out 
into an open sea in 64° 21' S., 38° 51' W., on March 10th, 
reaching 70° 14' S. in 40° 3' W. on March 14th, 1823. 
Here, he says, he found the temperature of the air to be 
47 0 and that of the water 44 0 , values certainly at least 
ten and perhaps fifteen degrees higher than we can be- 
lieve possible in such a latitude and at such a date. 
Weddell, a month before, had broken his only two ther- 
mometers a short distance to the north of the same posi- 
tion ; but said that the air and water were no colder than 
they were ten degrees (of latitude) further north. 
Could Morrell have “ corrected ” Weddell’s temperatures 
for 6o° S. by ten degrees of temperature, and claimed 
these figures as representative of the conditions in 70° S. ? 
It is curious to notice that Morrell refers to Weddell as 
having reached a higher latitude in the same sea the year 
before, whereas it was in the same year and only a month 
earlier. From his farthest south, Morrell bore north- 
west and coasted some part of the land called New South 
Greenland by Johnson to its north cape, in 62° 41' S. 
This was probably intended for the land known later as 
