204 THE ANTARCTIC. 



prominently, though this is not apparent in the ac- 

 companying reproduction of a sketch taken from the 

 account of his voyages by Ross. Both mountains are the 

 northernmost outposts of a lofty mountain range, the Parry 

 Mountains, extending south to latitude 79° S. and perhaps 

 farther still, as Ross saw their summits rising high above 

 the great ice barrier which joins Mount Terror on the east. 

 Scarcely any natural feature of the Antarctic world 

 has at any time so stirred the imagination and so 

 roused scientific interest as the discovery of this great 

 ice barrier, /car' e^o^V. It is true that the icy covering" 

 of Mount Erebus projects with vertical face several miles 

 into the sea, but this would in no wise astonish the 

 discoverer, as the same phenomenon may be observed 

 everywhere among the glaciers of Victoria Land. The 

 most surprising characteristics of the great ice barrier 

 are its unbroken uniformity, its vast extent, and the 

 entire absence of visible land from its edge. From 

 Cape Crozier, latitude yy° 25' S., longitude 169 10' 

 E., to latitude 78 S. and longitude 169° W., the barrier 

 extended — in January and February, 1841, at least — 

 uniformly, without perceptible indentation, and with 

 very few and slight variations in height. It was highest 

 near Mount Terror, for here, where the mass of ice 

 probably rests on the sea bottom, a height of 180 to 

 280 feet was observed, while farther east it was, on the 

 whole, nearly 130 to 150 feet. It was only in the last 

 position mentioned that Ross observed the irregularity 

 referred to above in the account of his voyages, with 

 one still more marked to the east of the point he attained. 

 The more broken face of the barrier, as well as the 

 appearance of icebergs covered with detritus, tend to 

 prove that Ross was not mistaken concerning the land 

 seen in latitude 78 10' S. and longitude 161 30' W., 

 and that it is probable that the great barrier here comes 

 to an end, or at least to the end of its uniform course. 



