West; indeed, it may be doubted if any of the specimens of either Greek or Latin anthology equal them. The specimens, from the nature of the work, which is doubtless to exhibit to natives the mode of turning descriptions of the most familiar poetical ideas, are extremely short; at the same time, they are the very choicest modes of enveloping these ideas, being selected from first-rate poets. Prosaic or even metrical translation must fail to adequately convey the elegance of turn, on which the great value and beauty of these portions depend; yet they show the cast of thought in the poetry of the

Chinese.

Neither the name of the author, nor the date of the edition, appears.

VERSES BY KAMĀL UDDIN ISMA'ÏL.

يصف البخل

نانیست درین جهان و آبي

از دیده آدمـي نــــــــــاني

نه گرسنه ديده روي او سير

نه تشنه دهد ازو نشاني مسما اسميست بمانده بي لفظیست از آن سوي معاني این را صفتیست لا يذوقون و آن را سمتیست لن تراني داني که کدام نان و آبست نان تو و آب زندگاني

'DISCOVERY OF THE ANTARCTIC CONTINENT.

IN proportion as the civilized states of the world are extending their dominion over races unreclaimed, or communities imperfectly acquainted with arts and knowledge, they are taking steps to enlarge their acquaintance with the globe itself, endeavouring to add to its area by completing its geography and zoology, and thus disclosing new worlds to be hereafter conquered. England is stretching the arms of her power over vast countries in the East; Russia is expanding her already overgrown territories by uniting to them the half-civilized nations that touch their confines; America is quietly, and without the fear of provoking political jealousy, appropriating to herself the lands and hunting-grounds of the Red men, who are supplied with the means of exterminating themselves (as a more economical expedient than civilization), and even France, confined within a political belt of anti-aggrandizement in Europe, is throwing out her antennæ towards Africa and Polynesia.

Whilst the eagerness to reach the supposed wealthy countries in the East by a shorter route than by the stormy Cape (which has been realized by the magical effects of steam) has, for the last four centuries, directed the stream of maritime discovery towards the Arctic regions in the North, the Southern, or Antarctic Pole, was neglected. It is a singular proof how much the spirit of enterprize is excited by sordid impulses, that the search for a southern continent was first stimulated by a ridiculous notion that it contained a country teeming with wealth and abundance. The author of this hypothesis, the well-known Alexander Dalrymple, hydrographer to the East-India Company and afterwards to the Admiralty, who added to mathematical knowledge a strong proneness to credulity, having visited the East and studied the writings of the early Spanish navigators, adopted their theory that there existed an antarctic continent, surrounding the South Pole -the necessity of which he determined, à priori, upon the principle that it was required "in order to establish the equilibrium of the earth"-and that it corresponded to the description given of it in the wild romances of those writers, who made it rival their own fallacious pictures of Mexico and Peru. Dalrymple was so infatuated with this notion, that, in 1772, he projected an expedition, at his own expense, to discover the southern continent, which he did not execute merely because the Prime Minister (Lord North), with whom he had an interview upon the subject, refused to allow him to retain for five years all the countries he should discover between long. 0° and 60° west. So sanguine was this projector, that he actually composed a code of laws for a republic to be established in the antarctic paradise, those laws being adapted for no other than an imaginary community. The code was to be unalterable; lawyers for hire were proscribed; the public accounts were to be audited in the churches every Sunday; women were to be eligible for public offices, and to be upon an equal footing with men, and bachelors and spiusters were to be heavily taxed.

These visions, however, may be said to have originated the expedition of

Captain Cook, whose second voyage, in 1772, was despatched to the high southern latitudes, in order to set the question completely at rest. This commander, on the 17th January 1773, after threading islands of ice, reached the latitude of 67° 15' S., where the ice extended from E. to W.S.W., without the least appearance of an opening, and he was compelled to retreat to the north, completely establishing, however, the illusory character of Dalrymple's theory, though not demonstrating the non-existence of a continent of some kind.

Since Cook's time, but not until very recent years, private adventurers, English, American, and Russian, have penetrated to a much higher latitude, and their reports having laid a sufficient foundation for an opinion that land existed about the South Pole, and that it was approachable, two expeditions were despatched in the beginning of the present year, by the United States government and that of France, which have added somewhat, at least, to the sum of our knowledge of this neglected portion of hydrography.

Of the French expedition we have two reports before us, one officially made by Commodore D'Urville, the commander, to the French Minister of Marine; the other by an officer of the expedition, published (with the sanction of M. D'Urville) at Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land, to which the vessels returned after their antarctic trip. The facts contained in these two reports we shall combine in a narrative of this expedition.

The vessels were, the Astrolabe, under the commodore, and the Zélée, commanded by M. Jacquinot. Both were corvettes, properly fitted out for a voyage of discovery to the south of Cape Horn. The crews suffered much from dysentery during the passage from Sumatra to Van Diemen's Land, and were reduced in number; but Capt. D'Urville, nevertheless, determined to pay a second visit (exécuter une second campagne) to the polar regions,* for the purpose of ascertaining the limits of the icy barrier, and especially to collect positive data respecting the true position of the southern magnetic pole.

The two vessels left Hobart Town on the 2d of January 1840, and were favoured (after the 4th) with regular winds from the W.S.W. and W.N.W., which enabled them to direct their course to the S.S.W. for more than 450 leagues, without deviation. From the 12th January, the dip of the magnetic needle continued regularly to increase from 74° to about 86°, the highest point it reached. The temperature as regularly decreased till the 15th January, when it was 2° above the freezing-point of Reaumur. On that day, according to M. D'Urville, they crossed the route of Cook in 1773; but the other account gives the latitude this day at 59°. Next day, in lat. 60° long. 141°, they saw the first ice-berg, a shapeless mass, 50 feet high and 200 long. From this time, the number and dimensions of the icebergs increased daily until the 19th, when they became almost innumerable : on the 17th, in lat. 62° and 63°, they were in masses of 1,900 to 2,500 feet long, and 100 to 130 high. In the evening of the 19th, in 66°, they observed land extending from S. to W.S.W., as far as the eye could reach

*Capt. D'Urville had visited these latitudes in a previous year.

either way. On the 21st, the two vessels steered towards the land in a S.S.W. direction, through immense chains of enormous bergs, so close together, that sometimes there was a channel of not more than three or four cables' length; occasionally, a spacious basin opened, filled with smaller bergs in fantastic shapes, which the imagination might convert into palaces of sparkling crystal. The sky was clear, the weather fine, and the wind, a light breeze from the E., favourable; and when liberated from the intricate navigation, they reached a space tolerably free from ice, and approached to within five or six miles of the shore, according to one account, but the official report makes the distance about eight or ten. They sailed along this coast, which is described as a strip of land from 1,200 to 2,000 feet high, covered with snow and ice, which was in some parts of a smooth and uniform surface, of a dull white colour; in others, broken and irregular. Many masses of ice had fallen from the high land, and prevented approach to it.

The dip of the needle was now 86°, which indicated the point of no variation not far to the W. The wind being still fair, they approached two miles nearer the coast, farther to the westward, where an excellent observation gave 66° 30′ S. lat., and 138° 21′ E. long. All the compasses on board the vessels now denoted that the newly-discovered land lay under the antarctic polar circle, and very near the southern magnetic pole. The observations were made on a large ice-berg about two miles distant.

The uniformity of colour and appearance presented by the coast still left some doubt whether it was land or ice, notwithstanding the improbability of a body of ice attaining so great a height. During a calm, therefore, M. D'Urville despatched two boats to a part of the coast which exhibited some black marks, about six miles distant, from whence they returned with specimens of rock from a part which was left bare by the ice. The rock was granite of different colours. They brought likewise some penguins, of a peculiar species, but had seen no trace of any other animal, nor any specimen of the vegetable kingdom. This country was named by the commodore Terre Adélie, an affectionate tribute to Madame D'Urville, his lady, "to perpetuate the record of his gratitude for her consent to their long and painful separation."

They continued to follow the line of coast at the same distance of two leagues, favoured by a gentle breeze from the east, the next day. Though the weather was fine, the cold was severe, and in the night of the 22d the mercury fell to 5° below zero of Reaumur. The commodore would have continued to skirt and survey the land, which still stretched to the west, but on the morning of the 23d the ice began to close in, the bergs being connected by a floe from the land, raising a barrier of masses of ice, which was impenetrable, extending from the land to the north as far as perceptible. An attempt was made to work between the land and the mass, but the weather changing, the wind beginning to blow a gale, and snow falling, they were in a perilous situation, hemmed in between the land and the ice; the Zélée, in particular, was exposed to danger of wreck upon an island of ice. After very painful efforts, the cordage being stiff with the frost, Asiat.Journ. N.S.VOL.33.No.129.

F

and a crust of frozen snow covering the crew, all hands being required to work the ships, they emancipated themselves from their confinement on the 25th. M. D'Urville then endeavoured to follow the land in an easterly direction, but the wind again becoming adverse, and the snow still falling, he was forced to desist. He made further attempts in various directions, encountering severe weather, and occasionally being surrounded by bergs, till, on the 28th, steering to the S. W., they were stopped by a floe flanked by large masses of drift ice. They had now followed the coast about 150 miles from the two points, and on the 30th, still standing to the S.W., land was announced from the look-out. This was a perpendicular wall of ice, firm and uniform, flat at the summit, which was 120 to 130 feet high; they followed it very close for twenty leagues, but could not perceive the land, a mist overspreading the horizon, and limiting the view to 10 or 12 miles. Different opinions were entertained respecting this wall; some thought it merely a huge mass of compact ice, not connected with any land; others, M. D'Urville amongst the number, held it to be a crust surrounding a solid base, of earth, or rocks, or shoals in advance of the land.

On the 31st, this icy wall took suddenly a direction to the S.W., and next morning, nothing was seen of it, chains of ice-bergs occupying its place, and farther on to the S.W., a field of ice, extending to the W. and N.W. beyond the utmost reach of vision from the mast-head, put a stop to all further progress to the south. M. D'Urville is of opinion that the land of Adelia surrounds the Polar circle, and may be reached in any direction by penetrating through the looser ice and bergs which girdle its inhospitable coast. The variation of the compass, which had been N.E., had become N.W. at this time, showing that the line of no variation had been passed.

On the 1st of February, when in 65° 20′ S. lat., and 128° 21' E. long., he took his departure, and arrived at Hobart Town on the 17th, after an absence of 46 days.

The following observations upon this newly-discovered land are from the non-official account:

The part observed, about 150 miles in extent, is comprised between 66° and 67° of latitude, and 136° W. to the 142° of E. longitude (Greenwich). Its mean height is about 130 feet. The snow and the ice, which covered it, almost entirely, gave its surface a level appearance, ravines, inlets, and projections being occasionally seen. There was no trace of vegetation along the coast. Whales, porpoises of large size, fur seals, and a few penguins, petrels, and albatrosses, are all that the animal kingdom seems to offer. Captain D'Urville was of opinion that the newly-discovered territory was of some extent. The fields of ice put a stop to all further progress westward from the obstructions they presented, but towards the east, or rather south-east, it did not appear impossible to penetrate to some distance, at least as far as the eye could reach from the mast-head. Contrary winds, fresh breezes from the east, and a desire entertained by Commodore D'Urville to afford satisfactory data for the determination of the magnetic pole, are the motives which hindered him from attempting any further search towards the E.S.E.

These reports afford very little hope of realizing the paradisaical picture of Dalrymple.