STEAM WHALERS 
363 
reaching the South Shetlands at the beginning of the open 
season on November 18th. It is interesting to find that 
Dallmann, like Bellingshausen half a century before, met 
a little fleet of sealing schooners hailing from Stonington, 
Connecticut, at work around the islands. The charts 
were not found of much value for navigation, and twice 
the Gronland discovered new rocks by the good old rule- 
of-thumb method of running upon them, though fortu- 
nately, on each occasion, she slipped off into deep water 
with her stout timbers none the worse for the shock. 
After a disappointing time so far as seals went, Dall- 
mann set out to search the coasts of Palmer Land farther 
south toward the Biscoe Islands ; and on January 9, 1874, 
he sighted Graham Land in 64° 45' S., and this was 
apparently the nearest approach he made to the Antarctic 
circle. He found that the coast line was quite different 
from that shown on existing charts, but his rectifications 
have since been themselves extensively altered, so that it 
is not necessary to describe them in detail. The most in- 
teresting feature he reported was a wide channel running 
eastward which he named Bismarck Strait, and the land 
northward of his turning point he found to be a compli- 
cated archipelago instead of a comparatively simple main- 
land. The sea was clear and the weather favourable 
enough for farther advance southward; but the number 
of seals was diminishing as the ship proceeded, therefore 
Dallmann resolved to turn back, and he spent the rest of 
the season hunting with some success round the South 
Orkneys. At the end of February the lengthening nights 
warned him that it was time to leave sub-Antarctic waters, 
and he made for home, anchoring once more in the Elbe 
on July 25, 1874, after an absence of a year and three days. 
Dallmann reported having seen a large number of 
