66 THE ANTARCTIC. 



After a nine days' sail, during which the ships had an 

 arduous and toilsome task in working their way towards 

 the west through the ice and against the wind, a dark 

 mass was seen to rise on the horizon towards the south- 

 west on the 9th of February. Balleny at once made for 

 this, and after an hour the ships had approached within 

 five nautical miles of it. At sunset it could be distinctly 

 seen that the land consisted of three large islands, and as 

 no attempt to land could possibly be carried out, Balleny 

 was obliged to rest content with ascertaining and deter- 

 mining their position. According to his observations, 

 the west cape of the middle one lay in latitude 66° 44' S. 

 and longitude 163 n' E. All three islands, which were 

 subsequently named after their discoverer, were almost 

 entirely covered with snow, and on all sides glaciers de- 

 scended to the sea. 



Baffled by the ice, Balleny now turned to the north- 

 west, beyond the 63rd parallel of latitude, observing 

 numerous whales and sea-birds on his course. As, how- 

 ever, the ice diminished, he again commanded a south- 

 westerly direction, and on the 27th of February he found 

 himself in latitude 64° 37' S. and longitude 130° 22' E. 

 On the 2nd of March the drift-ice largely increased, and 

 with it the number of birds seen ; at the same time land 

 showed in the south, towards which Balleny steered next 

 day. He encountered an immense number of icebergs 

 of colossal size, while in the south-west the ice closed in 

 completely, with land clearly visible beyond. A storm 

 meanwhile prevented Balleny's nearer approach, and 

 drove him to flee from the dangerous proximity of the 

 pack-ice. At the time land was seen the ships were in 

 latitude 65° 25' S. and longitude 118 30' E., and no 

 doubt can exist as to the correctness of Balleny's observa- 

 tions, for Wilkes distinctly saw land from the same place 

 when there a year later. Balleny thought he saw land 

 some days previously, on the 26th of February, when 



