"The excessive cold of the southern hemisphere has been variously accounted for, every philosopher adopting that theory which best suited his own hydrographical system. Saint Pierre supposes it to proceed from a cupola of ice surrounding the South Pole, and stretching far northward. We have now better data to go upon; for though great exertions were used in the years 1773 and 1774 to discover the terra australis incognita without success, yet we find there is a range of land lying as far north as the latitude of 61 degrees. We may also conjecture, without much fear of being in the wrong, that the land with which we are acquainted, lying in latitude of 61 degrees, and in longitude 54° 30', namely, the east end of South Shetland, stretches to the W.S.W., beyond the longitude in which Captain Cook penetrated to the latitude of 710 10. It is this land which, no doubt, ought to be looked upon as the source from which proceeds the excessive cold of these regions. The temperature of air and water in the latitude of 60 and 61 degrees, I have mentioned to be but little above the freezing point. The cold earthless land, and its immense islands, which are continually separating in the summer, and are made, by prevailing westerly winds, almost to girdle the earth, is evidently the cause of the very low temperature which prevails. "The part of the country which I have seen is without soil, reared in columns of impenetrable rock, enclosing and producing large masses of ice, even in the low latitude of 60° 45'.

"It is certain that ice islands are formed only in openings or recesses of land; and field ice, I think, is not readily formed in a deep sea.

"On soundings, the water is soon cooled down to the freezing point; hence field ice is found at the distance of many miles from any shore. These considerations induce me to conclude, that from having but three ice islands in sight, in latitude 74 degrees, the range of land, of which I have spoken, does not extend more southerly than the 73d degree. If this be true, and if there be no more land to the southward, the antarctic polar sea may be found less icy than is imagined, and a clear field of discovery, even to the South Pole, may therefore be anticipated."-pp. 40–45.

The observations of the writer, taken in connexion with those of preceding navigators, tend to confirm the theory of MalteBrun, that the ice produced in winter within the antarctic circle is carried northerly by a current from the pole, till it forms an icy belt about the earth, the outer edge of which is near the sixty-first degree of north latitude, leaving the region about the pole nearly clear of ice during the summer. Independent of the fact that Captain Weddell found an open sea in the 74th degree of latitude, the existence of such a current is rendered somewhat probable from the circumstance that in sailing towards the pole, he found himself, while near the sixty-sixth degree of latitude, carried by a current to the northward 48 miles in three days. On his return he experienced, about the seventy-first degree of latitude, a current by which the vessels were carried thirteen miles to the north in two days. The writer remarks, however, that the difficulty of keeping a correct reckoning subjects these observations to some suspicion. In a little lower latitude, he tried the current by mooring

the boat, and found it setting to the north-east one sixth of a mile an hour.

The vessels now steered for South Georgia, and on their passage kept a look-out for South Iceland, an imaginary isle laid down in the chart near the sixty-third degree of south latitude, and the forty-fifth of west longitude from Greenwich. We cannot help suspecting, from the lamentations of the worthy Captain, and the bitter tone of vexation in which he relates his disappointment, that although he is not willing to acknowledge it, he had cherished expectations of extraordinary good fortune on the untrodden shores of this island. His imagination probably gloated on the abundance of what he technically calls produce, to be found here; to wit, multitudes of the fur-seal, of sea-elephants, and sea-leopards, who, unused to the sight of man, would lie still, and quietly suffer themselves to be killed and skinned. Instead however, of this promised paradise of the seal-hunter, he found only ice-islands, fog-banks, and the waves of the great Atlantic.

South

In the passage to South Georgia, the writer again noticed several of those extraordinary irregularities in the variation of the compass, which have been already mentioned. Georgia is an island about ninety-six miles in length, and ten in breadth. It is indented with many deep bays, which in some places almost meet each other from the opposite shores. The lofty summits of the mountains are perpetually covered with snow; but the soil of the valleys during summer, produces in abundance a strong bladed grass, growing to the height of two feet. Fur seals and sea-elephants once abounded on this island, but these animals are now almost extinct. The writer estimates the number of skins that have been brought off from the island by adventurers from Great Britain and other countries, at 1,200,000. Birds yet abound on these shores; and Captain Weddell was no uncurious observer of their appearance and habits. Speaking of the king-penguin, he says,

"They go in large flocks along the shore, erect, and with a waddling gait. When seen through a hazy atmosphere, they may be not inaptly mistaken for a body of men; and, indeed, Sir John Narborough has whimsically likened them to "little children standing up in white aprons." Those which he describes, however, were a very diminutive species in comparison with the king-penguin, the bird to which I refer.

"In pride, these birds are perhaps not surpassed even by the peacock, to which, in beauty of plumage, they are indeed very little inferior,-as may be seen in our principal museums During the time of moulting, they seem to repel each other with disgust, on account of the ragged state of their coats; but as they arrive at the maximum of splendour they reassemble, and no one who has not completed his plumage is allowed to enter the community. Their frequently looking down their front and

sides in order to contemplate the perfection of their exterior brilliancy, and to remove any speck which might sully it, is truly amazing to an ob

server.

"About the beginning of January they pair, and lay their eggs. During the time of hatching, the male is remarkably assiduous, so that when the hen has occasion to go off to feed and wash, the egg is transported to him, which is done by placing their toes together, and rolling it from the one to the other, using their beaks to place it properly. As they have no nest, it is to be remarked, that the egg is carried between the tail and legs, where the female, in particular, has a cavity for the purpose.

"The hen keeps charge of her young nearly a twelvemonth, during which time they change and complete their plumage; and in teaching them to swim, the mother has frequently to use some artifice; for when the young one refuses to take the water, she entices it to the side of a rock, and cunningly pushes it in, and this is repeated until it takes the sea of its own accord. There are three other kinds of penguins, all of them nearly of the same size, but little more than half the bigness of that which I have described. Their plumage is not near so fine, but they walk erect, and are of the same form with the king-penguin. The names by which they are distinguished are, the macaroni, the jack-ass, and the stonecracker penguin. The macaroni is so called from its having been likened to a fop or macaroni, though I must confess, I do not see the similitude. The next has its name from the noise it makes, which resembles the braying of an ass. And the third is denominated from its pecking or cracking stones when irritated. All these birds have a practice of cunningly stealing from one another, during the time of nest-building, the materials of which they are constructed They differ from the king-penguin in these particulars, and also in having nests, which are sometimes in the side of tussac mounds, but generally on the side of a hill, and are composed of a few sticks and stones. They remain with their young but four months, viz. from January to April, at which time they take them off shore for several successive days, to the distance of four or five miles, in order to accustom them to the water; and when they can endure it, they go off to sea."-pp. 55, 57.

Some particulars of the manners of the albatross are worth transcribing.

"There is something humourously remarkable in their way of mating; the couple approach one another with great apparent ceremony, bringing their beaks repeatedly together, swinging their heads, and contemplating each other with very deliberate attention Sometimes this will continue for two hours together, and to a person inclined to be amused, the whole transaction would appear not unlike one of our own formal courtships in pantomime. They have great power in their beaks, and, when on the nest, I have observed them defend themselves for half an hour against an active dog. Their feet are webbed and remarkably large, so that when the water is smooth they can walk on the surface with hardly any assistance from their wings, and the noise of their tread is heard at a considerable distance. Their eggs are inferior to those of geese, but they have less yolk, and more white in proportion to their size, and weigh generally one pound and three quarters All birds of the albatross and gull kind lay their eggs in October, and, when new laid, they are a great source of refreshment."-pp. 58, 59.

On leaving South Georgia, Captain Weddell made strict search for the Aurora Islands, a pretended Spanish discovery made in 1762, and afterwards verified, and situated, as the worthy Captain, using the Spanish idiom, expresses it; or as an American would say, in nearly as good English, located, in 1794, by the Corvette Atrevida. The author, it should seem, has fully ascertained that no such islands exist; the seal-catcher may therefore hereafter save himself the trouble of searching for it, and the geographer the pains of laying it down in his chart. Captain Weddell supposes these pretended islands to have been either the Shag Rocks, a reef lying about five degrees of longitude easterly from the supposed place of the Auroras, or ice-islands loaded with the earth of the shores from which they had been broken.

The crews of these two vessels wintered at Falkland Islands. This uninhabited group consists of nearly ninety islands. Two of them, the east and west Falklands, lying at different extremities of the group, are of considerable extent. The greatest length of the western island is one hundred miles, and its greatest breadth about fifty; the eastern island is considerably smaller. A sound, navigable for ships of any size, lies between them. The author gives a more favourable account of their climate than we should gather from the reports of those who had formerly visited them. He thinks indeed that it has grown more temperate within the last forty years, the cause of which he supposes to be that the immense bodies of ice which were then annually found in the latitude of 50°, are no longer seen in that region. In three different voyages which the author has made in those seas, he remarks that he never saw southern ice to the northward of South Georgia. There is no wood on Falkland Islands; but they yield an abundant and inexhaustible supply of excellent peat. Extensive tracts of soil are thickly covered with grass; and on East Falkland are large herds of horses and wild cattle. The winters are mild; the temperature is rarely as low as the freezing point; and the snows which fall in July, August, and September, immediately disappear from the ground. The site of the English settlement at Port Egmont was most injudiciously chosen. The ruins of the town stand on the south side of a steep mountain, six hundred feet in height, and at its very foot, where, during the winter, the rays of the sun could hardly be said to come. The French settlement at Port Louis, in 1764, was made in a more fortunate situation; and the colonists, according to our author, appear to have made considerable progress in cultivating and VOL. II.

2

fertilizing the soil, when they were taken off by the Spaniards, who claimed the islands.

New Island, one of the Falklands, was for two years the abode of a Captain Barnard, an American, whose story is given in this book. In the year 1814, while the United States were at war with Great Britain, Barnard, on a visit to New Island, in the course of a voyage undertaken to procure seal furs, found the crew of an English ship, which, on her passage from Port Jackson, had been wrecked on the south side of these islands. They were about thirty in number, including passengers, several of whom were ladies. He took them to his vessel, treated them with that kindness to which their unfortunate condition gave them a title, and promised to land them, on his passage home, at some port in the Brazils. One day, Captain Barnard, with four of his men, were out on a hunting party to procure supplies for his guests. The crew whom he had succoured, fearing, probably, that notwithstanding his promise, he intended to take them to the U. States; and thinking more of their own safety and convenience than their gratitude, cut the cables in his absence, and in spite of all that the Americans who were left on board could do to prevent it, ran away with the ship to Rio Janeiro. In their haste they had forgotten to leave any thing for Barnard and his companions to subsist upon; luckily, however, he had planted a few potatoes on the island, which the second season produced him a considerable crop. A dog which had gone with them on the hunting excursion, now and then caught a pig; and they gathered and stored up the eggs of the albatross at the proper season. They clothed themselves with the skins of seals, and built a house of stone, strong and warm enough to protect them from the storms of winter, and the cold winds of the south. At one time, Barnard's companions stole the boat, and he was left alone on the island for several months. It seems, however, that they found it difficult to do without him, for they returned and put themselves under his direction. They continued, however, to be discontented and quarrelsome, and one of them actually plotted Barnard's death. The method taken by this little community to punish and reclaim the delinquent would have done honour to Beccaria. He was placed alone with some provisions on a small island in Quaker harbour, an appropriate name for the place of such a penitentiary. At the end of three weeks Barhard brought him back to the settlement a penitent and altered man. In December, 1815, Captain Barnard and his companions were taken off the island by an English whaler.

On the return of fine weather, the Jane and Beaufoy left