ANTARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 



407 



ing for us .... , and, as soon as day broke, we had the gratification of learn- 

 ing that she had not suffered any serious damage." 



On December 1 7 Sir James Ross sailed from the Falkland Islands, with the 

 intention of following the track of Weddell, as, from the account of that daring 

 navigator, he had every reason to expect to find a clear sea, which would enable 

 him considerably to extend the limits of geographical knowledge towards the 

 pole. He was disappointed, for though he discovered some new land (63°- 

 64° 30'S. lat., 55°-57° W. long.) to the south of D'Urville's Terre Louis Phi- 

 lippe, yet the pack-ice so blocked his progress that the farthest point he could 

 attain was in lat. 71° 30' S., long. 14° 51' W. On March 1 he recrossed the An- 

 tarctic Circle, and on the 28th of the same month dropped his anchors at the 

 Cape. Thus ended this most remarkable voyage, so honorable to all engaged 

 in it, for, as Sir John Richardson justly remarks, " the perseverance, daring, 

 and coolness of the commanding officer, of the other officers, and of the crews 

 of the * Erebus ' and ' Terror,' was never surpassed, and have been rarely, if ever, 

 equalled by seamen of any nation." 



Since then the " Pagoda," which had been sent out by the Admiralty for the 

 purpose of observing magnetic phenomena in a quarter of the Antarctic Seas 

 that had not been visited by Sir James Ross, attained the 73d parallel, but no 

 more recent expedition has been fitted out to prosecute his discoveries, and no 

 man after him has seen Mount Erebus vomiting forth its torrents of flame, or 

 traced the stupendous barrier which stopped his progress to the pole. 



