268 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
instructions, dated a year before his own, left that officer 
no choice but to proceed on the course he followed, and 
in any case the high seas are free to all to sail where 
they will or can. 
Ross however interpreted his instructions in the light 
of the large discretion that had been left to him. His 
reasoning was that of a sailor rather than a man of 
science, based on patriotic rather than scientific consid- 
erations and revealing incidentally that, specialist as he 
was, his mind ran no less on geographical discovery than 
on terrestrial magnetism. Fortunately in this case the 
reasoning led right. He says : 
“ Impressed with the feeling that England had ever 
led the way of discovery in the southern as well as in the 
northern regions, I considered it would have been incon- 
sistent with the preeminence she has ever maintained if 
we were to follow in the footsteps of the expedition of 
any other nation. I therefore resolved at once to avoid 
all interference with their discoveries and selected a 
much more easterly meridian (170° E.), on which to en- 
deavour to penetrate to the southward, and if possible 
reach the magnetic pole.” 
The reason he selected this meridian was that on it 
Balleny two years before had found an open sea in 
69° S. 
The new plans once adopted and the magnetic obser- 
vations at Hobart being placed under the charge of 
Lieutenant Kay and two mates, preparations were made 
for the expedition to put to sea. Stores had been com- 
pleted, officers and men were in the best of health and 
the highest of spirits, looking forward eagerly to the 
adventures that lay before them. On November 12th, 
1840, Sir John Franklin came on board the Erebus at 
