106 THE ANTARCTIC. 



made by Alexander v. Humboldt. Leaving Hobart on 

 the 7th of July, the ships reached Sydney on the 14th. 

 Their stay here till the 5th of August was principally 

 occupied with simultaneous magnetic term observations. 

 To complete his task, Ross then went to New Zealand, 

 where he lay in the Bay of Islands, near the northern 

 end of the northern island, from the 17th of August to 

 the 23rd of November, waiting here until the season 

 should be sufficiently advanced for a fresh start for the 

 high southern latitudes. On the date named, the ships 

 weighed anchor, and on the 30th of November sighted 

 Chatham, or Warekauri, Island, though they were unable 

 to land owing to the stormy weather. On the 16th of 

 December they met with their first icebergs in latitude 

 58° S. and longitude 147° W., five degrees further north 

 than the previous summer, but decidedly further south 

 than bergs were first encountered by Cook and Biscoe in 

 these regions. Ross had kept to an eastward course 

 thus far on account of his terrestro-magnetic observations, 

 but on reaching the meridian of 146° W. he determined to 

 change his course to due south. He expected to dis- 

 cover land from the low latitude in which the first 

 icebergs were met, and, in any event, to reach the eastern 

 point of the great ice barrier, so as to resume his explora- 

 tions of the previous summer where they had been 

 interrupted. The circumstance that but few icebergs 

 were seen during the day after their first appearance, 

 and that the vessels attained a latitude of 6i° 3' S. on 

 meridian 146° 3' W., caused Ross to hope that the pro- 

 gress south would be rapid. On the evening of the same 

 day, however, a strong ice-blink appeared in the sky to the 

 south-east, and announced the neighbourhood of pack-ice, 

 and early on the next morning, the 17th of December, 

 the main pack was reached. As the edge seemed pretty 

 open Ross at once ran into the pack, but after penetrating 

 about thirty nautical miles, the ice became so heavy that 



