Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/139

] examination of the eastern coast of the island from Cape François to Cape George, near its southern extremity, resulted from the visit of this great navigator; and the illusion which had taken possession of men's minds of its being a part of the great southern continent was dispelled by a reference to the log-book of the Adventure, in which ship Captain Furneaux, the companion of Cook on his second voyage, crossed the meridian of this land about fifty miles to the southward of Cape George in February, 1773, after separating from the Resolution, thus proving that no part of this land extends to the southward beyond the fiftieth degree of latitude.

In March, 1799, many of its numerous and secure harbours were examined and surveyed by Captain Robert Rhodes, when in command of the Hillsborough, employed in killing sea-elephants, seals, and whales, in the southern hemisphere; and the following extracts relating to some of the more accessible and convenient anchorages for vessels employed in the southern fishery are taken from a manuscript memoir written by him, and will serve to elucidate the chart of these islands, which I have constructed from the best materials I could collect, in addition to the surveys of the several harbours at the northern part of the island that were made by the officers of the Expedition.

Captain Rhodes states, that "after our arrival in the Great South West Bay, I found the season had expired for killing sea elephants and seals, but in