INTRODUCTION 



than half a century. Once in open water the Erebus and 

 Terror held an easterly course through the Southern 

 Ocean south of the Pacific, farther north than Biscoe, 

 Bellingshausen or Cook, making passage to the Falkland 

 Islands, by that time a British possession. The greatest 

 danger of the whole cruise occurred suddenly on this 

 passage, when the two ships came into collision while 

 attempting to weather an iceberg in a gale and snow- 

 storm during the night; but though for an hour all gave 

 themselves up for lost they came through, and they 

 reached Port Louis in the Falklands on April 5, 1842, 

 one hundred and thirty-seven days out from the Bay of 

 Islands. 



Having received authority to spend a third summer 

 in south polar exploration, Ross sailed from the Falklands 

 on December 17, 1842, intending to survey the coasts 

 discovered by d'Urville and follow the land south to a 

 high latitude in Weddell Sea; but though several points 

 on Louis Philippe Land were sighted and mountains 

 named, there was no open way to the south and it was 

 not until March 1, 1843, that the Antarctic Circle was 

 reached by coasting the pack to 12° 20' West. Here a 

 sounding of the vast depth of 4000 fathoms was obtained, 

 but Dr. W. S. Bruce, with improved and trustworthy 

 apparatus, found sixty years later that the real depth at 

 this point was only 2660 fathoms. Ross proceeded south- 

 wards in open water to 71 ° 30' South, thirty miles within 

 the ice-pack, but there he was stopped nearly half-way 

 between the positions reached by Bellingshausen in 1820 

 and by Weddell in 1823; and here his Antarctic explora- 

 tion ended. On his way to Cape Town Ross searched for 

 Bouvet Island as unsuccessfully as Cook, though he 

 passed within a few miles of it. Ross' first summer in 

 the Antarctic had brought unexpected and magnificent 

 discoveries, tearing a great gap in the unknown area, and 



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