324 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
Cook could not find it, Ross could not find it, Moore on 
the Pagoda failed to see it, but between these attempts 
several of the Enderbys' whaling skippers had visited 
and even landed upon islands in that neighbourhood. 
On March ioth the appearance of a remarkable beam 
of light in the sky attracted attention, and at first it 
was taken for an auroral display, though its true nature 
as the great comet of 1843 was speedily recognised. 
Ross crossed the meridian of Greenwich in latitude 
54 0 8' S., and at noon on March 22nd his latitude was 
54 0 11' S. and longitude 6° E. He says, “Bouvet 
Island should therefore have been in sight, bearing S. 
55° E., distant nine miles. We stood exactly towards 
it until we had run twelve miles, but not seeing it we 
steered east to keep in its supposed latitude.” 
Ross did not then know that Lindsay in the Swan had 
sighted an island in 54 0 24' S., 3 0 15' E. in 1808, but after 
hearing of this from Mr. Enderby he was still of opinion 
that the island did not occupy that position which he had 
passed so close as certainly to have seen any land that 
might be there. The island however does lie in 54 0 
26' S. and 3 0 24" E. or only two miles south and about 
five miles east of the position assigned by Lindsay so 
that the Erebus and Terror would seem to have passed 
in sight of it although’ the island was not distinguished 
from the bergs, so difficult is it even for the most prac- 
tised eyes to recognise the difference between a distant 
island of floating ice and one of ice-covered rock. 
There was a great abundance of icebergs that season 
and the ships were never out of sight of them until they 
reached the latitude of 47 0 40' S. Land was sighted on 
April 4th, 1843, an( i by the evening of that day the Erebus 
and Terror dropped their anchors in Simon's Bay, beside 
