EXPLORING ANTARCTIC SEAS 



enough, and go we should." - On January 13th they 

 approached the Balleny Islands (see Figure 5), but it 

 is unlikely that they saw indications of the land for 

 they were about one hundred miles away. On the six- 

 teenth several officers were satisfied that land was 

 visible. 'The mountains could be distinctly seen 

 stretching to the southwest as far as anything could 

 be discerned. Two peaks in particular were very dis- 

 tinct." Both these discoveries of the thirteenth and 

 sixteenth were probably errors of judgment, for the 

 ''Erebus" and "Terror" sailed across one "land" in 

 March, 1841, and the "Discovery" found no sign of 

 the other in those latitudes in 1904. Yet even here it 

 may be that Wilkes saw islands like Bouvet Isle which 

 will elude accurate survey for many decades. It must 

 be noted that the "Aurora" in 191 6 obtained very shal- 

 low soundings near Wilkes' doubtful lands. On Janu- 

 ary 23rd the American expedition reached a deep bay 

 (in 67° S. and 147° 30' E.), and obtained a sounding 

 at 320 fathoms. It seems likely that Wilkes was now 

 between the Ninnis and Mertz Glacier tongues, which 

 were mapped in detail by Mawson's expedition in 

 1911-12. On January 30th the "Vincennes" coasted 

 Adelie Land, noting the black rocks which D'Urville 

 had examined only ten days before. Wilkes writes, "I 

 gave the land the name of the Antarctic Continent." 

 On the same day (January 30th) the "Porpoise" met 

 D'Urville farther to the westward, as has been 

 narrated. 



2E. S. Balch, Antarctica (1902). 



27 



