It appears to be common in the neighbourhood of Cape Town, while the recent Antarctic expeditions have shown that it occurs in various localities from the Falkland Islands to the Antarctic circle.
Cook's second voyage was mainly intended to settle the question of the existence of such a continent once for all, and to define the limits of any land that might exist in navigable seas towards the Antarctic circle.
A simple, practical boundary between the three oceans can be obtained by prolonging the meridian of the southern extremity of each of the three southern continents to the Antarctic circle.
We now know, however, that the Antarctic circle runs so close to the coast of Antarctica that the Antarctic Ocean may be left out of account.
The north to south distance from Bering Strait to the Antarctic circle is 9300 m., and the Pacific attains its greatest breadth, 10,000 m., at the equator.
