THE EREBUS AND TERROR 323 
heavy with new ice fonning thickly in the pools and 
lanes of water. Farther progress was barred in lati- 
tude 71 0 30' S., longitude 14 0 51' W., and the third at- 
tempt of the expedition to reach the south pole had to 
be given up. The colours were hoisted in a last salute 
to the southern ice, and a barrel was thrown over con- 
taining a statement of the position and date signed by all 
the officers. 
The barometer was falling rapidly and the wind ris- 
ing as the two ships picked their way out of the pack. 
Once outside a fierce gale descended upon them, and 
two days and nights of the greatest anxiety followed, for 
it was almost more than the ships could do to weather 
the pack, the front of which was now a roaring line of 
surf. But the danger passed as it had so often passed 
before, and on March nth, 1843, the two ships recrossed 
the circle and emerged from the Antarctic regions for the 
last time. Their work was done. 
It cannot be said that the third season added much to 
the success of the expedition, the chief glory of which 
was achieved in the first. The terrible strain of the last 
two years had told heavily on the officers. Ross himself 
was not the man he had been. It may be that the third 
season was the worst of the three so far as ice and 
weather went; but it is possible also that the jaded leader 
had lost something of the clear perception and quick 
intuition that had led him so triumphantly at the first. 
Not that he failed for a moment in courage or resolve, 
but from the time of leaving New Zealand circumstances 
had been all against him. A final disappointment re- 
mained in the unsuccessful issue of the attempt to locate 
that child of the mist, Bouvet Island. It would almost 
seem as if the island were invisible to naval officers. 
