HISTORY OF DISCO VERY. 65 



tions of the circumpolar seas as had up to that time still 

 remained unknown. Appearances at least lead to the 

 supposition that John Balleny must have worked out 

 some such plan in his voyage between longitude ioo° 

 and 1 63° E. along parallel 6o° of south latitude ; for, with 

 the exception of the distance traversed by Captain Cook 

 from ioo° to 121° E. longitude in a latitude of 6o^° S., 

 no vessel had as yet completed the circumnavigation of 

 the pole so far south. It is true that only two very small 

 vessels were placed at Balleny's disposal : the schooner 

 Eliza Scott under his own command, and the cutter 

 Sabrina under H. Freeman — the latter with its tonnaee 

 of fifty-four being scarcely larger than the ship's boat of 

 a modern ironclad. On the 16th of July, 1838, Balleny 

 left London and immediately shaped his course for the 

 waters of New Zealand. After a visit to Campbell 

 Island, south of New Zealand, where by a strange 

 chance he met John Biscoe, he on the 17th of January, 

 1839, made direct for south-east and then for due south. 

 Up to the 27th of January the ships continued sailing in 

 this direction without encountering either land or ice, but 

 on that date they saw their first iceberg in latitude 63 

 2,j' S. and longitude 176° 50' E. Precisely in the place 

 where Bellingshausen in December, 1820, had been com- 

 pelled to return in consequence of the heavy pack-ice, 

 Balleny, on the 28th of January, reached his easternmost 

 point without serious hindrance in latitude 65 30' S. and 

 longitude 178° 13' E. Now he took his course towards 

 the south-west, and on the very following day, in 

 latitude 66° 40' S. and longitude 177 50' E., he came 

 upon the field-ice which shut in the southern horizon, 

 studded with numerous icebergs. In spite of the drift- 

 ice, which was not heavy, the ships continued their course 

 next day, and on the 1st of February, in latitude 69° S. 

 and longitude 172° 11' E., they reached the edge of the 

 heavy pack-ice, and were thus compelled to return. 



