INTRODUCTION 



further progress. A range of high land running south 

 was seen over the barrier and this Ross called the Parry- 

 Mountains ; to the west around the shores of an ice-girdled 

 bay (McMurdo Bay) the land seemed to run continuously 

 with the continent and Ross accordingly represented 

 Mount Erebus as being on the mainland, and the coast 

 as turning abruptly in McMurdo Bay from its southerly 

 to an easterly direction. The ships cruised eastward for 

 two hundred and fifty miles parallel with the Great 

 Barrier, the remarkable nature of which impressed all on 

 board, as they recognised its uniform flat-topped extension 

 and the vast height of the perpendicular ice-cliff s in which 

 it terminated, the height being something like 200 ft. on 

 the average, though at one point it did not exceed 50 ft. 

 On February 2, the highest latitude of the trip was 

 reached, 78° 4' South, or 3° 48' beyond Weddell's farthest 

 on the opposite side of the Antarctic Circle. Two days 

 later the pack became so dense that progress was stopped 

 in 167° West. Ross struggled for a week to get farther 

 east and then turned to look for a harbour on the coast 

 of Victoria Land in which he might winter. Passing 

 by. McMurdo Bay without examining it closely, he tried 

 to get a landing nearer the Magnetic Pole, being possessed 

 by a burning ambition to hoist the flag which he had 

 displayed at the North Magnetic Pole in 1881 at the 

 South Magnetic Pole in 1841. It was impossible, how- 

 ever, to get within twelve or fourteen miles of the land 

 on account of the freezing of the sea locking the pack into 

 a solid mass ; it was too late to turn back and seek a harbour 

 further south, and after naming the headland at the base 

 of Mount Melbourne, Cape Washington, in honour of 

 the zealous Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, 

 Ross left the Antarctic regions after having remained 

 south of the Circle for sixty-three days. On the way 



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