403 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



after him, and of Sabrina Land (69° S. lat.). About the same time three con- 

 siderable expeditions, fitted out by the governments of France, the United 

 States, and England, made their appearance in the Antarctic Seas. 



Dumont d'Urville discovered Terre Louis Philippe (63° 31' S. lat.) in Feb- 

 ruary, 1838, and Terre Adelie (66° 67' S. lat.) on January 21, 1840. Almost 

 on the same day, Wilkes, the commander of the United States Exploring Ex- 

 pedition, reached an ice-bound coast, which he followed for a length of 1500 

 miles, and which has been called Wilkes's Land, to commemorate the discover- 

 er's name. 



But of all the explorers of the southern frozen ocean, the palm unquestiona- 

 bly belongs to Sir James Ross, who penetrated farther towards the pole than 

 any other navigator before or after, and made the only discoveries of extensive 

 land within the area bounded by the Antarctic Circle. 



On New Year's Day, 1841, the Erebus," Captain James Clark Ross, and 

 the " Terror," commanded by Francis Crozier, who died with Franklin in the 

 Arctic Sea, crossed the Antarctic Circle, and after sustaining many severe 

 shocks in breaking through the pack-ice, emerged on January 9 into a clear sea 

 of great extent ; but the fog and snow-showers were so thick that the naviga- 

 tors could seldom see more than half a mile before them. On the following 

 day the fog began to disperse, and on the 11th, Victoria Land, rising in lofty 

 peaks entirely covered with perennial snow, was seen at a distance of more 

 than one hundred miles. On steering towards Mount Sabine, the highest 

 mountain of the range, new chains of hills were seen extending to the right 

 and left. After sailing for a few days to the south along the ice-bound coast, 

 a gale forced the ships to stand out to sea ; but on the morning of January 15, 

 the weather becoming beautifully clear, allowed a full view of a magnificent 

 chain of mountains stretching far away to the southward. Ross was most 

 anxious to find a harbor in which to secure the ships, but every indentation of 

 the coast was found filled with snow drifted from the mountains, and forming 

 a mass of ice several hundred feet thick. It was thus impossible to enter any 

 of the valleys or breaks in the coast where harbors in other lands usually oc- 

 cur. Yet these inhospitable shores (72° 73' S. lat.) are situated but one or two 

 degrees nearer to the pole than Hammerfest, the seat of an active commerce 

 on the Norwegian coast. 



Favored by northerly winds and an open sea, the ships reached on January 

 22 a higher southern latitude (74° 20' S.) than that w^hich had been attained 

 by Weddell. Pursuing their way to the southward along the edge of the 

 pack-ice, which now compelled them to keep at a considerable distance from 

 the coast, they came on the 27th within two or three miles of a small island 

 connected by a vast ice-field with the extreme point of the mainland. Eager 

 to set his foot on the most southerly soil (76° 8' S.) he had as yet discovered, 

 Ross left the " Erebus," accompanied by several officers, and, followed by Cro- 

 zier and a party from the " Terror," pulled towards the shore. A high south- 

 erly swell broke so heavily against the cliffs and on the only piece of beach 

 which they could see as they rowed from one end of the island to the other, as 

 almost to forbid their landing. 



