made by the Antarctic Expedition. 145 



as well as for other scientific purposes ; but every part of the 

 coast where indentations appeared, and where harbours on 

 other shores usually occur, we found so perfectly filled with 

 perennial ice, of many hundred feet in thickness, that all our 

 endeavours to find a place of shelter for our vessels were 

 quite unavailing. 



Having now completed all that it appeared to me possible 

 to accomplish in so high a latitude, and at so advanced a pe- 

 riod of the season, and desirous to obtain as much informa- 

 tion as possible of the extent and form of the coast we had 

 discovered, as also to guide in some measure our future ope- 

 rations, I bore away, on the 18th of February, for the north 

 part of this land, and which, by favour of a strong southerly 

 gale, we reached on the morning of the 21st. 



We again endeavoured to effect a landing on this part of 

 the coast, and were again defeated in our attempt by the 

 heavy pack, which extended for many miles from the shore, 

 and rendered it impossible. 



For several days we continued to examine the coast to the 

 westward, tracing the pack-edge along, until, on the 25th of 

 February, we found the land abruptly to terminate in latitude 

 70^ 40' S., and longitude 165° E., tending considerably to the 

 southward of west, and presenting to our view an immense 

 space occupied by a dense pack, now so firmly cemented to- 

 trether by the newly-formed ice, and so covered by recent 

 snow, as to present the appearance of one unbroken mass, 

 and defying every attempt to penetrate it. 



The great southern land we have discovered, whose con- 

 tinuity we have traced from nearly the 70th to the 79th de- 

 gree of latitude, I am desirous to distinguish by the name of 

 our Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria. 



Following the edge of the pack to the N.W. as weather 

 permitted, we found it to occupy the whole space between the 

 N.W. shore of the great southern land and the chain of islands 

 lying near tlie Antarctic circle, first discovered by Balleny in 

 1839, and more extensively explored by the American and 

 French expeditions in the following year. 



Continuing our course to the westward, we approached the 

 place where Professor Gauss supposed the magnetic pole to 

 be, and having obtained all the observations that were neces- 

 sary to prove the inaccuracy of that supposition, we devoted 

 some days to the investigation of the line of no variation; and 

 having completed a series of observations, by which the isody- 

 luunic lines and point of greater magnetic intensity may be 

 determined, and which I had left incomplete last year, I bore 

 away on the 4th of April for this port. 



Fhil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 20. No. 129. Feb. 1842. L 



