1 12 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
bordering the Antarctic circle, though with the exception 
of Morrell, we have not found that any of them claimed 
to have crossed the magic line that bounds the Antarctic 
regions properly so-called. No doubt they accumulated 
much information that has been lost to us, because at 
that time no society existed in America which concerned 
itself with collecting and preserving records of explora- 
tion or of encouraging geographical research. The 
work was that of groups of individuals, amongst whom 
some were fully alive to the importance of scientific ob- 
servation, though to most the seal was more interesting 
than the land it lived on. 
The Antarctic summer of 1829-30 saw Captain Pen- 
dleton in the brig Seraph, and Captain Palmer in the brig 
Annawan once more in the South Shetlands and cruising 
to the north and west of Palmer Land. On this occasion, 
they were accompanied by two scientific men, Mr. J. N. 
Reynolds and Mr. Watson, to whom the possibilites of re- 
search in the vast unknown area on whose verge they 
were hovering, naturally appealed strongly. Mr. Rey- 
nolds states distinctly that several sealers had gone south 
of 70° S., had pursued their work on uncharted coasts, 
but declined from commercial motives to give any defi- 
nite description of their discoveries. We are glad to 
learn that the old records and living memories at Ston- 
ington are being laid under contribution in order to 
produce what cannot fail to be a fascinating work, the 
full history of American sealers in the far south. 
In 1 & 33 > Edmund Fanning presented a memorial to 
Congress “ praying that a national discovery and ex- 
ploring expedition be sent to the South Seas/’ and a 
strong effort was made to influence public opinion in the 
matter. The Americans felt that they had been first in 
