226 THE ANTARCTIC. 



occurred in longitude 31° to 25° E. Similarly Bellings- 

 hausen came in latitude 6o° to 69 16' S. and longitude 16° 

 30' to 1 8° 30' E. upon fields of floating and of fixed ice, 

 which extended east to west to seemingly endless dis- 

 tances, and this so-called fixed ice may well be regarded 

 as an ice barrier. Near that spot, in latitude 69 25' S. 

 and longitude 13° E., Biscoe seems to have sighted 

 something like land, independent of sea birds, who were 

 observed to direct their flight to the south-west. In latitude 

 69 22' S. and longitude 2° 15' W. he came upon " a dense 

 wall of ice," of which unfortunately we have no detailed 

 account, so that it is impossible to determine whether it is 

 a mass of pack-ice or a genuine ice barrier. About the 

 regions farther west we are still without information about 

 land being sighted distinctly or even indistinctly ; but that 

 it must exist at least in higher latitudes is proved by the 

 numerous icebergs met by both Weddell and Ross in their 

 advance southwards between o° W. and Graham's Land. 

 In latitude 66° 24/ S. and longitude 32° 2,3' W. Weddell 

 saw a large iceberg, thickly covered with debris, and 

 farther south icebergs were very numerous about the 

 middle of February, and even in latitude 74° 15' S. he still 

 saw four of the bergs ; Ross saw them in great numbers 

 in latitude 70° to 71 30' S. and about longitude 15° VV. 



This exhausts the enumeration of all the land known 

 or conjectured to exist. Of its nature nothing is known 

 beyond the fact that Biscoe describes it as mountainous 

 and covered with snow. No specimens of rock have been 

 obtained from either the sea bottom, or from the matter 

 brought down by icebergs, by which conjectures about 

 the geology of the country might have been possible, and 

 not even soundings have been made in its neighbourhood. 

 Those made by Ross in latitude 68° 34' S. and longitude 

 1 2 49' W. are at a great distance from Enderby Land, and 

 no bottom was reached at a depth of about 24,000 feet. 

 If no error has occurred in this measurement then it is 



