CHAPTER XIII 
THE DISCOVERY OF VICTORIA LAND 
“The fair breeze blew, the good ship flew 
The furrow followed free. 
We were the first who ever burst 
Into that silent sea.” 
— Coleridge. 
TF dark and lurid names could cast a gloom on the 
prospects of an expedition little harmony or satisfac- 
tion could have been expected when, on September 25th, 
1839, ^e steamer Hecate towed the Erebus, followed by 
the Terror, into Margate Roads to await a favourable 
wind. In this case, however, there was nothing in names, 
and when the wind came away from the east on Septem- 
ber 30th the Erebus and Terror set sail and beating round 
the Foreland dropped their pilots and made their way 
down Channel bound for the south magnetic pole. 
The ships were separated in a gale on October 3rd, and 
the Erebus proceeded alone, losing sight of the Lizard on 
the 5th, rejoicing to meet the open sea, all the worry of 
preparation safely over and Ross himself finding it “ not 
easy to describe the joy and light-heartedness ” of being 
fairly embarked on the enterprise he had so long de- 
sired to undertake. Scientific observations were at once 
reduced to a system, and even in the Bay of Biscay 
attempts at deep-sea soundings with from 300 to 600 
fathoms of line were made. Madeira was reached on 
October 20th and the Terror arrived four days later. A 
barometric estimate of the height of Pico Ruivo was 
262 
