114 THE ANTARCTIC. 



tinued their progress along the edge to the north-east, 

 until the northern extremity was reached on the 22nd of 

 February, in latitude 6i° 30' S. and longitude 22° 30' 

 W. Soon after it became possible to press forward to 

 the south, and after Ross had entered the Antarctic circle 

 on the 1st of March, in longitude 8° W., in a com- 

 paratively open sea, he again, on the 5th, met with the 

 heavy pack, in which the holes and channels were already 

 covered with newly-formed ice. The highest latitude he 

 succeeded in reaching was 71° 30' S. in longitude 15° 

 W., not quite three degrees short of the latitude achieved 

 by Weddell t8° farther west, but two degrees higher than 

 the point reached by Bellingshausen 13° farther east. 

 The advanced season and the unfavourable condition of 

 the ice imperatively demanded an immediate return north, 

 and after the ships had weathered another furious storm, 

 on the edge of the pack on the 6th and 7th of March, the 

 Antarctic circle was recrossed for the last time on the 1 1 th 

 of March. Ross had determined to ascertain accurately 

 the exact position of Bouvet Island on his return voyage 

 to the Cape of Good Hope, and consequently held a 

 N.N.E. course, but all his efforts to find it remained as 

 unsuccessful as those of Cook before him. The last 

 iceberg was seen on the 25th of March in latitude 47° 

 40' S. and longitude io° 51' E., and on the 4th of April 

 the ships anchored in Simon's Bay. They left again 

 on the 30th of April, and after touching at St. Helena, 

 Ascension, and Rio de Janeiro, and staying some days in 

 each, the expedition reached Folkestone on the 2nd of 

 September, 1843, after an absence of nearly four years. 

 The vessels and their crews were in a perfectly sound 

 and satisfactory condition, and of the 152 men who had 

 started only one did not return. This was the quarter- 

 master of the Erebus, who fell overboard and was 

 drowned during a gale off Cape Horn the previous year. 

 The voyage of James Clark Ross, of which a short 



