HISTORY OF DISCOVERY. 95 



previously seen by means of the refraction of light at 

 the remarkable distance of a hundred nautical miles. 

 On the evening of the 9th of January the ships had 

 approached to within two and a half miles of the shore, 

 which was lined by heavy pack-ice. The summits of 

 the mountain chain rose to elevations of from seven 

 to ten thousand feet above sea-level : the highest, a 

 conical peak, was named Mount Sabine, and the whole 

 chain, running south-east and north-west, was named 

 Admiralty Range. The mountains were completely 

 covered with ice and snow, and everywhere gigantic 

 glaciers filled the intervening valleys, projecting many 

 miles into the sea, and ending in abrupt, perpendicular 

 ice cliffs. A promontory below Mount Sabine, partly 

 free from snow, was named Cape Adare, and from this 

 projection the land made a sudden bend to the south. 

 The magnetic dip, i.e., the angle that the perpendicu- 

 larly balanced needle makes with the horizon, had now 

 increased to &J°, according to which the magnetic pole 

 was placed in latitude 76° S. and longitude 145° 20' E. 



Ross still had hopes of circumnavigating the land 

 on the south and thus reaching the pole, and with this 

 object he resolved to steer along the east coast towards 

 the south. On this course he found a number of small 

 islands of volcanic origin ; and on one of these, in latitude 

 71° 56' S. and longitude 171° 7' E., he landed on the 

 1 2th of January, naming it Possession Island. During 

 the four succeeding days the vessels were twice compelled 

 by violent snowstorms to stand off towards the east 

 into the open sea, so as to avoid the perils of the shore 

 and the pack-ice. The summits of the lofty mountain 

 chain, here estimated at upwards of 10,000 feet high, 

 remained almost constantly in sight, and even at a dis- 

 tance of 140 miles were clearly recognisable, so that 

 many, not accustomed to estimating distances from land, 

 would have thought themselves only thirty or forty miles 



