278 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
Lying becalmed one day Ross had a dredge put over 
in 270 fathoms and was rewarded by a rich haul of 
rock-fragments dropped by the icebergs and a surpris- 
ing profusion of animal life. One of the finds named 
Idotea Baffini from its occurrence in Baffin Bay had 
previously been considered peculiar to the Arctic Seas. 
It was the first form of life which appeared to flourish 
in both polar seas and to be absent from the whole 
ocean between. 
At length a fair wind came, the ships made all sail 
for the south, every scrap of canvas was hoisted that 
could be rigged, and with studding-sails set on both 
sides the Erebus and Terror ran to the southward, 
officers and crews too excited to sleep and hardly leav- 
ing the deck in case they should miss the first sight of 
something new. Even after the fog and snow which 
were found to accompany north winds in those seas had 
set in, the ships held on their way, approaching the lati- 
tude of 74 0 S. on January 20th. 
A mountain higher than any previously seen was 
sighted on the 21st and named Mt. Melbourne in honour 
of the Prime Minister, who had given so encouraging 
a reception to the promotors of the expedition. It was 
a mountain so strikingly similar in outline to Mount 
Etna that on both ships it went at first by that name. 
A field of close unbroken ice extended outward from 
the shore and it was hopeless to try to penetrate it, so 
the ships sailed on along its edge, but the winds and cur- 
rents were baffling and it was scarcely possible to make 
progress. The night of Saturday, January 22nd, 1841, 
was exquisitely clear and beautiful, the sun at midnight 
skimmed along the southern horizon four times its own 
diameter above the sea-line. An extra allowance of grog 
