ABSTRACT
Antarctica almost was discovered by the great British navigator and explorer Capt. James Cook, whom the Admiralty had sent out twice in search of the legendary Terra Australis Incognita, and who instead found the east coast of Australia, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and the Cook Islands, as well as surveying New Zealand and much of the South Atlantic. Cook came very close to the Antarctic continent on his epic second voyage of 1772-75; he circumnavigated it without sighting land. He was sure it was there, but as a practical man, he dared not "risque... all that had been done during the voyage" by pressing his small ships farther south, because of "[t]hick fogs, snow storms, intense cold, and every other thing that can render navigation dangerous... these difficulties are greatly heightened, by the inexpressibly horrid aspect of the country." 1
