VICTORIA LAND 
279 
was served out to let the sailors rejoice that Weddell’s 
farthest toward the south pole had been surpassed and 
they were now at last the pioneers of the human race in 
that direction. Captain Ross spent the evening in the 
gun-room with his officers and all drank the toast of 
“ Better luck still.” The ships continued along the edge 
of the pack that fringed the land to the eastward, 
the dip of the needle increased to 88° and the mag- 
netic pole was now calculated to be less than 250 miles 
away. 
On January 27th the latitude of 76° 8' S. was reached 
and an island discovered which was called after Sir John 
Franklin. Here a landing was made with much diffi- 
culty and Dr. Hooker, whose turn it was to join the 
landing party, slipped into the water in jumping ashore 
and was in great danger of being crushed between the 
boat and the rocks. The ceremony of taking possession 
was hastened in consequence, and all in the party were 
thoroughly drenched by the spray before they got back 
to the ships. A large collection of rock specimens was 
secured, but the island showed no sign of vegetation 
and from the absence of any plant life from Possession 
Island also Ross somewhat rashly concluded that the 
vegetable kingdom had no representatives on the Ant- 
arctic lands. 
It had been a memorable day and at midnight it 
merged into one of still more remarkable achievement. 
Several distant islands were logged by the Erebus, but 
they did not appear on the chart because a nearer ap- 
proach made it evident that they were mountain sum- 
mits on the mainland. As the light strengthened on 
January 28th the summit of the loftiest peak, which 
seemed to be veiled in driving snow drift was discovered 
