HISTORY OF DISCOVERY. 103 



formed a much narrower belt off the coast, so that it was 

 possible to approach the land much nearer than in January. 

 A passage between the land and Coulman Island was 

 nevertheless not practicable, and as Ross resolved to 

 make an attempt to land at Cape Adare, and the 

 coast to the north of Coulman Island had been examined 

 on his passage south, he stood towards the cape without 

 delay. But even here a near approach was impossible, 

 because a dense body of ice already extended to some 

 distance from the shore, and Ross therefore determined 

 to follow the coast along the Admiralty Range to the north- 

 west as far as was possible. In this they were success- 

 ful as far as the extreme point named Cape North, from 

 which the land appears to trend to the south-west. The 

 closed young ice here intercepted further progress to the 

 westward, and the coast by Cape North was once more 

 carefully examined in the hope of finding a suitable har- 

 bour for the ships to winter in. In this hope they were 

 disappointed, for the indentations of the coast were 

 everywhere completely filled with glaciers, and the coast 

 consisted of perpendicular ice cliffs, varying from two to 

 five hundred feet high, and before them a chain of 

 stranded icebergs of great extent. Ross, however, spent 

 several days narrowly examining this northern portion 

 of Victoria Land, and in clear weather, on the 24th of 

 February, he was so fortunate a^ to see that, although 

 the land extends from Cape North in a south-westerly 

 direction, a barrier of ice stretches due west from the 

 cape to the horizon, corresponding in appearance to 

 the formidable barrier to the east of Mount Terror. 



After the relations of the north coast of Victoria 

 Land had thus been made plain, the leader of the expedi- 

 tion resolved to steer northwards, and in this way to 

 determine whether any land lay between Balleny Isles 

 and Cape North. On the evening of the 28th of Febru- 

 ary Victoria Land sank below the horizon at a distance 



