I840.J VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS. 2<> 



Having been apprised of the discoveries of the American 

 and French squadrons, and learning that they had failed to 

 get beyond 67° southern latitude in the quarter he had select- 

 ed for his own operations, Captain Ross determined to deviate, 

 from his original plan. He left Hobarton, therefore, on the 

 12th of November, 1840 ; and entering the Antarctic regions 

 still farther to the east, he found himself, early in January, 

 1841, amid immense fields of ice. The first land seen was 

 discovered on the 11th instant, and consisted of a mountain- 

 ous range, from seven to nine thousand feet high, whose sum- 

 mits were covered with snow and the intervening valleys filled 

 with glaciers, with the bare rocks peeping out here and there 

 through their wintry coverings, reaching away, far beyond the 

 view, in a southeasterly direction. In front of the main coast, 

 at a distance of thirty miles, loomed up a tall mountain, like 

 some hoary sentinel, called Mount Sabine, which was estimated 

 to be from seven to ten thousand feet above the level of the 

 sea. . Not far distant was Possession Island, as it was christ- 

 ened, in latitude 71° 56' S., and longitude 171° 07' E., ap- 

 proachable only on the northern side, and covered with a deep 

 bed of guano that emitted an intolerable stench. 



The 28th of January, 1841, was signalized by the discov- 

 ery of two lofty mountains — one of which, called Mount 

 Erebus, was 12,400 feet high, and an active volcano, and the 

 other, called Mount Terror, was an extinct volcano having 

 an elevation of 10,900 feet. Mount Erebus is in about lati- 

 tude 76° 06' S., and longitude 168° 11' E., and Mount Terror 

 lies a little further to the east and south. The former is con- 

 nected with the main land, and is described as presenting a 

 most grand and imposing spectacle. The officers fancied they 

 saw the streams of red-hot lava ploughing their way through 

 the snows of ages, down its corrugated sides ; and they plainly 

 witnessed the dark gyres and tall columns of smoke hurled 

 into the air, to the height of fifteen hundred or two thou- 

 sand feet above the mouth of the crater, where glowed un- 

 ceasingly the forked flames, whose meteor glare illuminates 

 the profound darkness that broods over this dreary clime in 



