THE ANTARCTIC OCEAN. 663 



tallization, which, as the sun's rays were reflected on it, exhibited a 

 scene of such unequaled magnificence aud splendor as would baffle all 

 language to portray, or give the faintest conception of. One very re- 

 markable peak, in shape like a huge crystal of quartz, rose to the 

 height of 7,867 feet, another to 9,096, and a third to 8,444 feet above 

 the level of the sea. From these peaks ridges descended to the coast, 

 terminating in bold capes and promontories. . . . On the 28th, in 

 latitude 77 31' and longitude 167 1', the burning volcano, Mount 

 Erebus, was discovered, covered with ice and snow from its base to its 

 summit, from which a dense column of black smoke towered high 

 above the other numerous lofty cones and crateriferous peaks with 

 which this extraordinary land is studded from the seventy-third to the 

 seventy-eighth degree of latitude. Its height above the sea is 12,367 

 feet, and Mount Terror, an extinct crater, near to it, . . . attains an 

 altitude little inferior, being 10,884 feet in height, and ending in a 

 cape, from which a vast barrier of ice extended in an easterly direction, 

 checking all further progress south. This continuous perpendicular 

 wall of ice, varying in height from two hundred to one hundred feet, 

 its summit presenting an almost unvarying level outline, we traced for 

 three hundred miles, when the pack-ice obstructed all further prog- 

 ress."* 



From 1841 up to 1874 when the Challenger visited the Antarctic 

 Circle, no vessel has spent any lengthy period in this region ; so, hav- 

 ing thus reviewed the discoveries of the various explorers, let us turn 

 to that element which is so much more abundant than land, the water, 

 and examine its form in a solid state. The icy barrier of which we 

 hear so much is thus described by Sir James Ross: "As we ap- 

 proached the land, . . . we perceived a low white line extending from 

 its extreme eastern point as far as the eye could perceive to the east- 

 ward. It presented an extraordinary appearance, gradually increasing 

 in height as we got nearer to it, and proving at length to be a per T 

 pendicular cliff of ice between 150 and 200 feet above the level of the 

 sea, perfectly flat and level at the top, and without any fissures or 

 promontories on its even seaward face." This barrier extended for 

 a distance of 450 miles, and nowhere was there any opening of con- 

 sequence by which it could be penetrated. 



Where such immense quantities of solid ice exist, there are ice- 

 bergs in abundance. The ones floating in these seas are of enormous 

 size, and present a vastly different appearance from those seen at the 

 north. There they are commonly jagged and sharp-pointed from their 

 first leaving the parent glacier, afterward assuming all sorts of weird 

 shapes. But at the south they are at first, and for a long while after- 

 ward, flat-topped, with square-cut sides, and with a stratified struct- 

 ure. The top stratum is from ten to twelve inches thick. The thick- 

 ness of the strata gradually decreases toward the bottom, and at the 



* Quoted in Somerville's "Physical Geography," London,"!, pp. 282-2S4. 



