ioo SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
and forming as fine a look-out as the crater forms a har- 
bour. On this look-out Captain Pendleton observed one 
clear day several mountains far to the south, one of them 
an active volcano. 
Captain Palmer was sent off in the little Hero to look 
more closely at the new mountains, and he found them 
to be part of a great region stretching far to the south 
laden with snow, and even at midsummer edged along 
the coast with a girdle of ice which discouraged any at- 
tempt at landing. It was not, perhaps, a very interest- 
ing land to its discoverer, for there were no fur-seals on 
the shore, only the spotted sea-leopard, which could bide 
its time till its more valuable comrade of the sea was 
extinct. 
On his way back from the discovery of his land, 
Palmer met the not uncommon fate of being enveloped 
in a thick fog, a dreary circumstance in any part of the 
ocean, but unutterably so when one knows one’s ship 
to be absolutely alone upon the sea, save for the drift- 
ing bergs. When the fog lifted Palmer looked to port 
and starboard with amazement to find on either side of 
him a full-rigged frigate and a sloop of war, nor could 
his astonishment be much lessened when in response to 
his hoisting the “ gridiron/’ they responded with the St. 
Andrew’s Cross. Fanning tells the story pleasantly, and 
we may quote his words: 
“ These ships he then found were the two discovery 
ships sent out by the Emperor Alexander of Russia, on 
a voyage round the world. To the commodore’s in- 
terrogatory if he had any knowledge of those islands 
then in sight, and what they were, Captain P. replied, 
he was well acquainted with them, and that they were 
the South Shetlands, at the same time making a tender 
