58 THE ANTARCTIC. 



Deception Island, an almost circular volcanic crater island 

 still showing active fumaroles. Here Foster remained till 

 the 8th of March, when he hurriedly turned north with- 

 out giving the least attention to the remaining members 

 of the island group. 



Far more important than this, the only scientific 

 expedition — that of Bellingshausen excepted — was a 

 voyage made by the seal-hunter, John Biscoe, in the 

 service of the London firm of Enderby, and not a 

 voyage of discovery at all. This took place in the years 

 1830-32. Biscoe, like Weddell. had two vessels, the brig 

 Tula and the cutter Lively, and with these he left 

 London for the Falkland Islands on the 14th of July, 

 1830. Leaving these on the 27th of November he. like 

 Weddell, kept to the east, making search for the Aurora 

 Isles. These were said to have been seen by the 

 Spanish ship Aurora in 1762, by another Spaniard, 

 the Princesa, in 1790, and by the Spanish corvette 

 Atrevida, in 1794, somewhere about latitude 53° S. and 

 longitude 48 W. However, neither Weddell nor Biscoe 

 found a trace of these islands, and Biscoe now turned 

 south, being the first since Bellingshausen, as far as is 

 known, to make for the South Sandwich Islands. On 

 the 10th of December, he met with icebergs in longitude 

 29° 15' W., and about latitude 53 S., and lost sight of 

 the little cutter for four days. On the 20th of De- 

 cember he sighted Montague Island from the east, and 

 on the following day Bristol Island and Friesland Island, 

 members of the South Sandwich group. After a vain 

 attempt to penetrate the heavy field-ice to the south of 

 these islands, Biscoe found himself compelled to steer 

 north, after having crossed the 60th parallel of southern 

 latitude. On the meridian of longitude 6° 20' W., he 

 recrossed the 60th parallel, and on longitude 2 30' E., 

 he crossed the Antarctic circle ; this was on the 21st of 

 January, 1831, in an all but perfectly open sea. On the 



