52 THE ANTAECTIC VOYAGE : PKELIMINAEIES 



Acknowledging, however, that they were within their rights 

 in so doing, whatever the results to him, he gave up his original 

 plan. His instructions left him a certain latitude, and, where 

 England had so constantly led, he did not choose to follow. 

 He therefore resolved to start his cruise in search of the Mag- 

 netic Pole farther to the east along the meridian of 170° E. 

 His chief reason for choosing this particular meridian * was its 

 being that upon which Balleny had in the summer of 1839 

 attained to the latitude of 69° and there found an open sea.' 

 It was not, he adds, because he feared to fail where the American 

 and French had failed to do more than barely cross the Antarctic 

 Circle. Their ships, unHke the Erebus and Terror^ were ill- 

 adapted to battle with the ice. Even in longitude 170°, 

 where Boss met with a belt of pack ice 200 miles wide, they 

 could not have forced their way through. Thus in 1839^0, 

 though D'Urville added Louis Philippe Land to the South 

 Shetlands group — south of Cape Horn — and south of Tasmania 

 traced Adelie Land for about 150 miles before approaching the 

 supposititious C6te Clairee ; — though Wilkes followed the same 

 hne with its barrier of pack ice another 20° westwards, the 

 ice, impenetrable by their ships, debarred them from so much 

 as reaching latitude 70° S. Li signal contrast to their moderate 

 achievements, Eoss himself, thus diverted from his original 

 plan, was rewarded with superlative success in the discovery 

 of Victoria Land, with its great volcano Mount Erebus, 13,000 

 feet high, in 77|° S., and its stupendous ice barrier, which he 

 traced for 250 miles, twice forcing his way beyond the 78th 

 parallel. 



Unable to effect a landing so as to visit the southern Mag- 

 netic Pole, 150 miles inland, he was able to place it very 

 accurately from abundant observations. 



Eoss made three expeditions to the South in the Erebus 

 and Terror — the first, 1840-1, from Tasmania and back to 

 Tasmania again, lasting five months, when he discovered 

 Victoria Land and the Great Ice Barrier ; the second, 1841-2, 

 from New Zealand and back to the Falkland Islands, east of 

 Cape Horn, lasting four and a half months, when he revisited 

 the Barrier ; the third, 1842-3, from the Falkland Islands 



