14 AUSTRALASIA. 



where he came close to the black rocks of a line of cliffs, Wilkes kept everywhere 

 at a distance of about twelve miles from the ice-fringed land, which appeared 

 to be everywhere covered with hoar-frost. East of the Balleny Islands, he also 

 reported a mountain mass on the very spot wHere James Ross, sailing in an open 

 sea, afterwards failed to touch the bottom with a sounding-line 1,000 fathoms long. 



But whatever view be taken of the true character of Wilkes Land, it is certain 

 that east of the Balleny Archipelago the sea extends much farther southwards. 

 James Ross explored these waters in 1841 and 1842, each time penetrating nearer 

 to the South Pole than any previous or subsequent navigator. In 1842, the 

 expedition specially equipped for piercing the ice floes reached 78° 9' 30", which, 

 however, is still over 800 miles in a bee-line from the South Pole, or nearly 400 

 miles short of the corresponding point reached in the Arctic Zone. During his first 

 voyage, Ross followed southwards the east coast of a region which he named 

 Victoria Land, and which is lined by imposing mountains such as the glittering 

 ice-capped peak of Sabrina (10,000 feet), and the still loftier Melbourne, rising to 

 an altitude of considerably over 13,000 feet. 



At the point where the expedition was compelled to turn back, there towered 

 above the ice-bound waters the twin volcanoes of Erebus (12,000 feet) and Terror 

 (11,000 feet), the former of which emitted volumes of smoke, murky during the 

 day and ruddy at night. The navigators, who had succeeded in getting ashore at 

 two places on this Austral continent, were prevented from landing near the 

 volcanoes by a wall of ice nearly 350 feet high, which formed the escarpment 

 of a vast plain at least 300 miles broad. 



East of Victoria Land the expeditions of Cook and Bellingshausen have revealed 

 the existence of no Antarctic mainland south of the East Pacific waters, or of any 

 land at all, except a dovibtful islet reported by Cook, and by him named Stone 

 Island. But in the region south of America, facing Cape Horn and the neigh- 

 bouring archipelagoes, the islands or perhaps the coasts of a great Antarctic land 

 have been seen at several points in the neighbourhood of the polar circle. Here 

 Bellingshausen discovered Alexander Land, which is probably continuous with the 

 hilly coast of Graham's Land observed by Biscoe in 1832, and more carefully 

 indicated by Dallman in 1874. Then to the north-east of this elevated ground 

 stretch parallel chains of numerous islands, comprising Louis-Philippe and de Join- 

 ville Lands, discovered by Dumont d'Ur ville, the Shetland Isles and Southern 

 Orkneys, already sighted by the English and American whalers, and perhaps even 

 by the Dutch vessel Van Geeritz in 1598. All these are mountainous masses 

 encircled by deep waters where the sounding-line records hundreds of fathoms 

 within a few cable-lengths of the shore. 



But immediately to the east of these archipelagoes, Captain Weddell, in 

 command of a whaler, forced a passage in 1823 through the floating ice and 

 entered a perfectly open sea, where he penetrated southwards beyond the seventy- 

 fourth degree of latitude. This is the southernmost point yet reached in the waters 

 stretching south of the Atlantic. Farther east — that is, in the direction of Wilkes 

 Land — the only dry land yet seen are the coasts of Enderby and Kemp, extending 



