VICTORIA LAND 
265 
the Erebus pursued her solitary way to Prince Edward 
Islands, where it was hoped a landing could be made. 
Marion Island, one of this group, was reached on the 
2 1st, but the weather was threatening; it was impos- 
sible to land and the Erebus continued her course to the 
Crozets running before a heavy westerly gale. „ The 
Crozets were reached on the 26th, but the ship ran past 
Possession Island, her rendezvous with the Terror and 
the quarters of a sealing party to which Ross had 
promised a Cape Town merchant to convey some stores ; 
so that nearly a week was spent beating up against the 
westerly winds of the “ roaring forties ” and standing 
off and on during gales in order to recover the ground 
lost in a few hours. At length on May 1st it was pos- 
sible to communicate with the shore and the sealers were 
found looking more like Eskimos than civilised beings, 
but far filthier than any members of that Arctic race that 
Ross had ever seen. They had been eighteen months on 
the island and were expecting a ship to bring them 
home instead of the orders which now reached them to 
stay on for an indefinite time. No landing was made 
from the Erebus and she held on her course for Kergue- 
len Land, where she met the Terror in Christmas Har- 
bour on May 14th. 
A magnetic and an astronomical observatory were 
fitted up on shore at the head of Christmas Harbour 
and the systematic observations made on May 29th and 
30th, two of the days set apart for simultaneous observa- 
tions at all the European and British stations, proved 
of exceptional interest. They happened to be days of 
great magnetic disturbance and it was subsequently 
proved that every movement of the needle at Kerguelen 
was simultaneous with a similar movement of the needle 
