enetrated much further to the south than
the latitude of New South Shetland, yet his meridian was 45 degrees farther
to the west, and that he thus left a large expanse of sea unexplored, on
the parallel of 62 deg. between that and Sandwich land, the longitude of which
is 22 deg. west. He indeed likewise reached 67 deg. south latitude: but this was in
longitude from 137 deg. to 147 deg. west. Now the longitude of New South Shetland
being 60 deg. west, it is evident that Captain Cook in his first attempt, left
unexplored the whole extent of longitude from 28 deg., the longitude of
Sandwich land, to 60 deg., the longitude of New South Shetland; and in his
second attempt, he was still further from the position of this new
discovered land. Peyrouse reached no higher than 60 deg. 30' latitude, and
Vancouver only to 55 deg.. Thus we clearly see that this land lay out of the
track, not only of those navigators, whose object being to get into the
Pacific by the course best known, pass through the Straits of Magellan and
Le Maire, or keep as near Cape Horn as possible, but also of those who were
sent out expressly to search for land in a high southern latitude.

The intelligence of the discovery of New South Shetland, and that its
coasts abounded in Spermaceti whales, and in seals, quickly and powerfully
roused the commercial enterprise both of the British and the Americans. In
the course of a short time, numerous ships of both these nations sailed to
its coasts; but from their observations and experience, as well as from a
survey of it which was undertaken by the orders of one of His Majesty's
naval officers, commanding on the southwest coast of America, it was soon
ascertained that it was a most dangerous land to approach and to continue
near. Its sterility and bleak and forbidding appearance, from all the
accounts published respecting it, are scarcely equalled, certainly are not
surpassed, in the most inhospitable countries near the North Pole; while
ships are suddenly exposed to most violent storms, from which there is
little chance of escaping, and in which, during one of the seal-catching
seasons, a great number were lost.

There are, however, counterbalancing advantages: the seals were, at least
during the first seasons, uncommonly numerous, and taken with very little
trouble or difficulty, so that a ship could obtain a full cargo in a very
short time; but, in consequence of a very great number of vessels which
frequented t