THE THKEE EXPEDITIONS 



53 



and back to the Cape, lasting three and a half months, when 

 he visited Louis PhiHppe Land and the South Shetlands. 

 Between the first and second came a stay of three months 



i'a Tasmania, a visit to Sydney and a stay of three months in 

 jTew Zealand. Between the second and third came a stay of, 

 iltogether, six months at the Falklands, broken by a seven 

 keeks' expedition to Hermite Island in Tierra del Fuego, and 

 rest of Cape Horn. 

 The original voyage out to Tasmania, which lasted nearly 

 leven months, followed an unusual course in order to touch 

 at various oceanic islands, to establish observatories there and 

 at the Cape, and to pass certain points of magnetic interest. 

 The journey home from the Cape, however, by way of St. 

 Helena, Ascension, and Eio, occupied only four months. Thus 

 four years had elapsed since leaving England on September 30, 

 1839, before Ross and his men once more reached Enghsh 

 soil on September 4, 1843. 



VOL. I 



