the authority upon which Lieutenant Wilkes had originally placed the land on his chart, had he not asserted to the contrary; because Lieutenant Ringgold in his report to his Commodore, as quoted by him in his defence at the court-martial, states, that "very lofty ridges of ice, and the loom usual over high land, were visible along the southern horizon over the barrier;" and he adds in evidence, "I made no positive report that it was, nor mentioned in the log, because I was not positive that it was land, though I have very little doubt about it."[1] And this assertion was made after he knew we had sailed over the spot. But Lieutenant Wilkes disavows this discovery of Lieutenant Ringgold, and states in his "Synopsis of the Cruise of the United States Exploring Expedition," delivered by him before the National Institute, on his return to America in 1842, p. 21—"During our cruise, as we sailed along the icy barrier, I prepared a chart, laying down the land, not only where we had actually determined it to exist, but those places in which every appearance denoted its existence, forming almost a continuous line from 160° to 97° East longitude, I had a tracing-copy made of this chart, on which was laid down the land supposed to have been seen by Bellamy [Balleny], in 165° E., which, with my notes, experience, &c. &c., was forwarded to Captain Ross through Sir George Gipps at Sydney, and I was afterwards informed was
