Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is Captain Cook's journal of his expedition beginning in 1772 to discover if there is a continent at the south pole. I did lots of skimming because he just doesn't have much to say on an average day at sea- latitude and longitude, wind direction, ice islands (evidently the word "iceberg" hadn't been invented yet) and whether he saw any penguins, whales or birds. Things are much more interesting when he gets on land at New Zealand and many islands in the South Pacific, even Easter Island with its statues. He goes into detail about native peoples, flora and fauna, topography, the location of bays, etc. I liked how he was aware that he had to bring along certain foods to prevent scurvy, but some of his men wouldn't eat those foods until after they had gotten symptoms. Then Cook was surprised when the sheep and goats which they had on the ship for food also showed symptoms of scurvy. This book is Volume 1 and he doesn't discover Antarctica in it, so that must happen in Volume 2.
Addendum: Oops!! Greg, who wrote the comment, is right- Antarctica wasn't discovered until 1820. Edward Bransfield is credited with being the first to see the peninsula. I should have done a little research first.
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A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World, Volume 1 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by James Cook is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of James Cook then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.
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