JAMES CLARK ROSS 261 
Still it cannot be denied that had the expedition of the 
Erebus and Terror been organised on the lines subse- 
quently followed on that of the Challenger the gain to 
science would have been enormous. 
As the Erebus and Terror lay in the Medway ready to 
start on their momentous expedition the little Eliza Scott 
entered the Thames returning from her daring voyage 
in the seas to which the expedition was bound, and Ross 
was made aware of the discovery of the Balleny Islands, 
which were hailed as a possible station for magnetic and 
pendulum work in the most interesting region. 
One may assume that Smith, the discoverer of the 
South Shetlands, was acquainted with Weddell, who 
knew Morrell, who was a friend of Palmer, who met 
Bellingshausen in the most romantic way, and Weddell 
also met Biscoe, who, in turn, knew Wilkes, D’Urville and 
Balleny, while Balleny returned in time to see Ross, and 
Ross’s assistant surgeon, Sir Joseph Hooker, was ac- 
quainted personally with the leaders of the Antarctic ex- 
peditions of the remainder of the nineteenth, and of the 
twentieth century. 
It might be possible to find some link connecting Smith 
and Cook could one but penetrate the mist enveloping the 
history of the seal-trade of South Georgia, which began 
on Cook’s return and was not quite extinct forty years 
later when the record of the nineteenth century discov- 
eries opened. The chain was indeed completed through 
Bellingshausen’s call for Sir Joseph Banks, the shipmate 
and constant friend of Cook; and thus by the joined 
hands of Russian, American and British explorers the 
great navigator was brought into living touch with Scott, 
Drygalski, Nordenskjold and Bruce. 
