INTRODUCTION 



way lie was to proceed south from Kerguelen Land and 

 examine those places where indications of land had been re- 

 ported. In the following summer he was to proceed south- 

 ward from Tasmania towards the South Magnetic Pole 

 which he was to reach if possible and return to Tasmania. 

 In the following year he was to attain the highest latitude 

 he could reach and proceed eastward to fix the position 

 of Graham Land. 



The Erebus and Terror reached Hobart Town in 

 August 1840, without doing any Antarctic exploration 

 on the way. At Hobart Ross was in constant communi- 

 cation with Sir John Franklin, the governor of Van 

 Diemen's Land and a great authority on polar exploration 

 in the north. He heard of d'Urville's and Wilkes' dis- 

 coveries and was very angry that others had taken the 

 track marked out for him. He resolved that he would 

 not, as he somewhat quaintly put it, " interfere with their 

 discoveries " and in so doing he allowed the haze of un- 

 certainty to rest over the region south of the Indian Ocean 

 to this day; but he also resolved to try to get south on 

 the meridian of 170° East, where Balleny had found open 

 sea in 69° South; and had it not been for the previous 

 French and American voyages causing him to change his 

 plans, Ross might conceivably have missed the great 

 chance of his lifetime. The expedition left Hobart on 

 November 12, 1840, sighted the sea ice on December 31, 

 lying along the Antarctic Circle, and after spending some 

 time searching for the best place to enter it, on January 5, 

 1841, ships for the first time in the southern hemisphere 

 left the open sea and pushed their way of set purpose 

 into the pack. The vessels having been strengthened after 

 the manner of the northern whalers to resist pressure and 

 Ross himself fortified by long experience in Arctic navi- 

 gation, the impassable barrier of the earlier explorers had 

 no terrors for him. The pack which all other visitors to 



xxxiii 



