286 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
use of boats, the weight of which cracked the ice and 
opened a way for the ships to reach clear water. 
On February 21st, the ships were once more off Cape 
Adare, and several days were spent searching along the 
ice-bound coast for a harbour in which it would be pos- 
sible to winter, or at least for a place where a landing 
could be made, but neither could be seen, although the 
weather was clear and bright, affording fine views of the 
land which was finally lost sight of on February 28th. 
The approach of winter was now heralded by the length- 
ening nights which allowed the aurora australis to ap- 
pear for the first time. Whales of great size were very 
numerous, and Ross believing them to be a valuable 
species looked on them as hopeful pioneers of explora- 
tion tempting the whaling fleets to visit those seas, but 
much more than half a century was destined to pass 
away before a whale-ship ventured within a thousand 
miles of them. 
The ships were steering northwestward, and on March 
2nd they sighted two lofty islands or mountains at a 
great distance. These were almost certainly part of the 
Balleny group, but they received new names on the occa- 
sion of their rediscovery — Russell Peak and Smyth 
Island. Two days later a third was sighted and named 
Francis Island. A strong appearance of land to the 
westward, high and broken into islands, was also made 
out before thick weather blotted out the distance. In 
the evening the Antarctic circle was crossed northwards 
after the expedition had spent the unprecedented time 
of sixty-three days continuously to the south of it. A 
good look-out was now kept for the mountainous land 
on Wilkes’s chart, which Ross naturally supposed to rep- 
resent one of the discoveries of the American expedition, 
