CHARLES WILKES 
245 
condition in which they were, saying that they had no 
dry place in which to lie down and their clothes had been 
continuously wet for seven days. The officers concurred 
in the representation and Pinkney himself fully realising 
the hazardous condition of affairs, gave the order to 
turn northward on February 5th, and on March 9th, 
after a rough and dangerous passage, they reached the 
Bay of Islands, where the scientific staff who had not 
been allowed to take part in the Antarctic cruise were 
already assembled and where the rest of the squadron 
ultimately joined them. 
Considering the state of the ships which made this 
attack on the south polar seas the length of time they 
were able to pursue their object was remarkable and in 
the highest degree creditable to the commanding officers. 
Experience has shown, however, that so large a squad- 
ron so heavily manned is not the best instrument of ex- 
ploration in polar seas. A couple of small stout ships 
of the Arctic whaler type would undoubtedly have done 
far more with far less risk than the two French and 
four American vessels which cruised for two months in 
those inhospitable waters. 
Still a very substantial increase in the knowledge of 
the Antarctic was made. The Balleny Islands, Sabrina 
Land and Biscoe’s Enderby Land were shown to be 
connected by patches of high land, which was sighted at 
so many points as to make it certain that it forms a 
range of islands, if not a continuous continent. The 
fact that Wilkes gave the name of Antarctic Continent 
to this collection of land does not of course prove that it 
is a continent. In order to demonstrate that it would be 
necessary to do much more than fix a few points along 
one coast and the work remains for the future. 
