io Ne%i> South Shetland. 347 
forcibly to open a passage for ourselves^ through them. They 
consisted principally of four species of the penguin ; with alba- 
trosses;, gulls, pintadoes, shags, searswallows, and a bird about 
the size and shape of the common pigeon, and of a milk-white 
plumage, the only species we met with that was not vreb- 
footed. We also fell in with a number of the animals described 
in Lord Anson’s voyage as the Sea-Lion, and said by him to be 
so plentiful at Juan Fernandez, many of which we killed. Seals 
were also pretty numerous ; but though we walked some dis- 
tance into the country, we could observe no trace either of inha- 
bitants, or of any terrestrial animal. It would be impossible, 
indeed, for any but beasts of prey to subsist here, as we met 
with no sort of vegetation except here and there sm.all patches 
of stunted grass growing upon the surface of the thick coat of 
dung which the sea-fowls left in the crevices of the rocks, and a 
species of moss, which occasionally we met with adhering to the 
rocks themselves. In short, we traced the land nine or ten de- 
grees east and west, and about three degrees north and south, 
and found its general appearance always the same, high, moun- 
tainous, barren, and universally covered with snow, except where 
the rugged summits of a black rock appeared through it, re- 
sembling a small island in the midst of the ocean ; but from the 
lateness of the season, and the almost constant fogs in which we 
were enveloped, we could not ascertain whether it formed part 
of a continent, or was only a group of islands. If it is insular, 
there must be some of an immense extent, as we found a gulf 
nearly 150 miles in depth, out of which we had some difficulty 
in finding our way back again. 
The discovery of this land must be of great interest in a geo- 
graphical point of view, and its importance to the commercial 
interests of our country, must be evident from the very great 
numbers of whales with which we were daily surrounded ; and 
the multitudes of the finest fur-seals and sea-lions which we met 
both at sea and on every point of the coast, or adjacent rocky 
islands, on which we were able to land. The fur of the former 
is the finest and longest I have ever seen ; and from their ha- 
ving now become scarce in every other part of these seas, and 
the great demand for them both in Europe and India, they 
will, I have no doubt, become, as^ soon as the discovery is made 
