472 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



latitude, and for the discovery there of a grand active volcano, 

 which was named by Boss " Mount Erebus," while its sister 

 mountain, an extinct volcano of somewhat inferior height, was 

 named, after the second ship of the expedition, "Mount Terror." 

 Mount Erebus, which seems far more energetic in its action 

 than our Tongariro, rises directly fi-om the sea in the form of a 

 regular cone, towering far up into the sky to about the same 

 height as Mount Cook. Eed glowing fires were visible at the- 

 summit, from whence issued a column of dense smoke, which 

 rose at times to the height of 2,000 feet. 



The appearance of this magnificent burning mountain, with 

 its most interesting surroundings, never before and never since 

 seen by mortal eye, must have been a grandly impressive spec- 

 tacle to all on board of the two vessels, and they would gladly 

 have wintered within sight of it if they had found a suitable 

 place to secure the ships. Had they accomplished this. Sir 

 James Koss might have had the honour of planting the flag of 

 his country on both the north and south magnetic poles, 

 their estimated distance from the latter being only about 160 

 miles. From Cape Crozier, at the foot of Mount Terror, the 

 vertical icy cliffs of the great barrier stretched away to eastward 

 as far as the eye could reach, while its smooth surface, only 

 once seen from the mast-head over a lower part of the cliff, 

 appeared like an immense plain of frosted silver. This vast 

 unique ice-plain, or mcr de cjlace, is perhaps the most interesting 

 of Boss's discoveries to the southward. It may, with its sur- 

 roundings, be the best illustration extant of conditions that 

 prevailed during the well-established glacial period of the 

 Northern Hemisphere, also cf the desolation that may be 

 expected to reign in the distant future over all the now pleasant 

 habitable parts of the earth, supposing that after the confla- 

 gration foretold in Scripture the planet is allowed, so to speak, to 

 die a natural death. "We know little about it — yet enough, 

 however, to whet the curiosity of scientific men, and make them 

 eager to learn more. Boss estimated its thickness at 1,000 feet, 

 and traced the northern edge, a straight perpendicular wall 

 varying in height from about 100 feet to 200 feet, to a distance 

 of 450 miles to the eastward. 



Many questions with regard to it suggest themselves readily 

 to the mind — as. What is its extent ? Are its dimensions 

 altering? Is it in motion ? If in motion, at what rate does it 

 move, and in what direction ? Does it rest chiefly on laud or 

 on water ? Is it fed chiefly by glaciers, or by the snow that 

 falls on its surface '? In what manner does it waste away ? I 

 do not find such questions discussed by Boss, and the ausAvers 

 to some can only be guessed at in our present state of know- 

 ledge. As to the waste, most persons on first turning their 

 thoughts to the subject are apt to think that m a climate of 



