OF THE ANTARCTIC VOYAGE. 311 
ceived information by a more recent arrival from the Falklands, 
that the Erebus and Terror did not proceed to the south till 
after the first week in December, when, summer haying com- 
menced, we may confidently hope that the Botanists reaped 
a good harvest of flowering plants. It is believed that it was 
Capt. Ross’s intention to proceed in the direction of Capt. 
Weddell’s route, in order to verify his statements: in which 
case there exist many interesting groups of Islands in the 
way, which we trust will be visited. What success may have 
attended the navigator’s approach to the Pole in that direc- 
tion it is vain for us to conjecture. Of one thing we feel 
sure that the gallant commander will perform all that a 
British navigator can do, and that the same spirit animates 
every officer and seaman attached to the Expedition. Should 
no further discoveries be made than have already been 
effected by this Voyage, yet these, we have reason to know, 
when the results shall be published, cannot fail to add to the 
glory of this nation, high as it already stands, in all that 
concerns maritime discovery and scientific research. 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 
May 25, 1843, 
While correcting for the press the last sheet of the above 
notes, the joyful news has reached England of the safe arri- 
val of the Antarctic Discovery Ships at the Cape of Good 
Hope, on the 4th of April, after a third cruize in the dreary 
South Polar Regions, where they were brought up on the 
5th of March, 1843, by the heavy Pack ice, in lat. 719 80^ 
long. 15° W. This point was a few miles to the south of 
any previous navigator but Weddell (themselves excepted), 
and, several degrees* nearer the South Pole than had been 
* The only account within my reach of the last Voyage of D'Urville 
(the Expedition of the Astrolabe and Zélée) is given in a volume published 
at Paris, 1843, entitled * La Polynésie et les Isles Marquises.” There it 
is stated that “the two ships,” just mentioned, wereat Port Famine, Pata- 
gonia, and as the month of December had arrived, it was high time to 
proceed towards the Pole. Weddell was the individual whose steps they 
