VICTORIA LAND 273 
up and when it moderated next day not a particle of ice 
•was to be seen, nothing appeared but open sea. 
It was an epoch in the history of discovery : the magic 
wall from before which every previous explorer had to 
turn back in despair, had fallen into fragments at the 
first determined effort to break through it. The oppor- 
tunity opening before the triumphant ships was one of 
those that occur but once or twice in the course of the 
ages — the first seafarer to pass the Pillars of Hercu- 
les, Diaz when he doubled the Cape of Storms, Columbus 
when he sighted the West Indies, Balboa when he first 
saw the Pacific “ silent upon a peak in Darien,” Magel- 
lan when he forced his way through his strait into 
the trackless ocean had experienced similar moments. 
It was impossible to predict how much might lie beyond 
that unbroken expanse of clear sea. The expedition 
seemed to be a success at its very start. The course was 
set for the south, straight for the magnetic pole which 
the increasing dip of the needle, now 85°, showed could 
not be very far away. Just as hopes of reaching the 
magnetic pole were at their height came the report of 
land ahead, a discovery that was actually a disappoint- 
ment, coming as it did in the form of an obstacle to the 
immediate attainment of the principal object of the ex- 
pedition. 
The land was first seen at a distance of fully one 
hundred miles, its lofty peaks rose higher and higher 
as the ships steered straight for the culminating sum- 
mit, to which Ross gave the name of Mount Sabine 
after “ the first proposer and one of the most active and 
zealous promoters of the expedition.” At 6 p. m. on Jan- 
uary nth the land was only a few miles distant, but the 
wind was blowing on-shore and the surf w r as beating 
