 penetrated, if not to the
pole itself, at least to the eighty-fifth parallel. I have given his ideas
respecting these matters somewhat at length, that the reader may have an
opportunity of seeing how far they were borne out by my own subsequent
experience.
    In 1831, Captain Briscoe, in the employ of the Messieurs Enderby, whale-ship
owners of London, sailed in the brig Lively for the South Seas, accompanied by
the cutter Tula. On the twenty-eighth of February, being in latitude 66° 30' S.,
longitude 47° 13' E., he descried land, and »clearly discovered through the snow
the black peaks of a range of mountains running E. S. E.« He remained in this
neighborhood during the whole of the following month, but was unable to approach
the coast nearer than within ten leagues, owing to the boisterous state of the
weather. Finding it impossible to make further discovery during this season, he
returned northward to winter in Van Diemen's Land.
    In the beginning of 1832 he again proceeded southwardly, and on the fourth
of February land was seen to the southeast in latitude 67° 15', longitude 69°
29' W. This was soon found to be an island near the head-land of the country he
had first discovered. On the twenty-first of the month he succeeded in landing
on the latter, and took possession of it in the name of William IV., calling it
Adelaide's Island, in honor of the English queen. These particulars being made
known to the Royal Geographical Society of London, the conclusion was drawn by
that body »that there is a continuous tract of land extending from 47° 30' E. to
69° 29' W. longitude, running the parallel of from sixty-six to sixty-seven
degrees south latitude.« In respect to this conclusion Mr. Reynolds observes:
»In the correctness of it we by no means concur; nor do the discoveries of
Briscoe warrant any such inference. It was within these limits that Weddel
proceeded south on a meridian to the east of Georgia, Sandwich Land, and the
South Orkney and Shetland islands.« My own experience will be found to testify
most directly to the falsity of the conclusion arrived at by the society.
    These are the principal attempts which have been made at penetrating to a
high southern latitude, and it will now be seen that there remained, previous to
the voyage of the Jane, nearly three hundred degrees of longitude in which the
Antarctic circle had not been crossed at all. Of course a wide field lay
