16 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' 



Remembering the main object of his journey, Ross steered to 

 the west towards the magnetic pole, and on January 8, 1841, 

 discovered the glorious mountainous country of Victoria 

 Land. 



Ross's discoveries are so closely connected with my 

 narrative, that it is unnecessary to refer to them in detail 

 here. Twice he visited this great open sea, and the results of 

 these extraordinarily interesting voyages may be summed up as 

 follows : The high mountain ranges and the coastline of 

 Victoria Land were laid down with comparative accuracy from 

 Cape North in latitude 71 to Wood Bay in latitude 74, and 

 their extension was indicated less definitely to McMurdo Bay 

 in latitude 77^. In the same latitude, but slightly to the east- 

 ward, the lofty volcanoes of Erebus and Terror were dis- 

 covered, and the former was found to be active. Stretching 

 away to the eastward for 400 miles beyond these, Ross observed 

 that great wall of ice which he named the Great Barrier. At 

 the eastern end of this wall he achieved his highest latitude, 

 78.11 S., an advance of nearly four degrees on his predecessor 

 Weddell. Ross was not able to disembark on this great mass 

 of land which he had discovered, but managed to reach the 

 shore of some off-lying islands which he named the Possession 

 Islands. 



There are many reasons why Ross's wonderful voyage 

 should not have attracted the wide popular interest which it 

 deserved, but when the extent of our knowledge before and 

 after it is considered, all must concede that it deserves to rank 

 among the most brilliant and famous that have been made. 

 After all the experiences and adventures in the Southern Seas 

 which I have briefly described, few things could have looked 

 more hopeless than an attack upon that great ice-bound region 

 which lay within the Antarctic Circle ; yet out of this desolate 

 prospect Ross wrested an open sea, a vast mountain region, a 

 smoking volcano, and a hundred problems of great interest to 

 the geographer ; in this unique region he carried out scientific 

 research in every possible department, and by unremitted 

 labour succeeded in collecting material which until quite lately 



