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WILKES'S LAND.
[Chap. IX.
1841
of "laying down the land, not only where we had actually determined it to exist, but in those places also in which every appearance denoted its existence," is not only entirely new amongst navigators, but seems to me likely to occasion much confusion, and even to raise doubts in many minds whether the existence of some portions of land that undoubtedly were seen might not also be of an equally questionable character with those laid down from appearances only, unless some distinctive mark were given by which they could be known from each other.
I had never entertained the smallest doubt that every portion of land laid down on Lieutenant Wilkes's chart (with the exception above alluded to) had been clearly and distinctly made out to be land without the possibility of a question on the subject until I read that paragraph, and I must confess that after a very careful perusal of his narrative, and with his chart before me, I feel myself quite unable to determine in a satisfactory manner how much of the land was really seen by him with the degree of certainty that gives indisputable authority to discovery; and lest I should make any mistake on a point of so much importance, I have only placed the discoveries made by D'Urville, Balleny and ourselves in those parts on the general South Polar Chart, and must refer the reader for those made by Lieutenant Wilkes to the chart sent to me, which will be found in the Appendix, and his own narrative; and I may here further remark,
