CHAPTEK III 
THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 
The long preparations at last completed, at the end of 
September 1839 they set sail on an adventurous voyage for 
how long they knew not. Its exact scope and length depended 
on the captain and his midivulged instructions. In the end, 
as has been said, they reached home within four years ; but 
there had been talk of a fifth year or more. In three successive 
summers they entered the ice. The first voyage was the most 
rewarding, the second the most perilous. Eoss indeed failed 
to reach his formal objective. He found a continent instead 
of open sea : the Magnetic Pole was 150 miles inland. The 
icy sheet which barred nearer approach to the shore stretched 
a full twenty miles further to the north than it does now : 
and for saihng ships at the mercy of winds and tides it was 
impossible to land here or winter with reasonable prospect of 
safety. 
Geographically, however, they achieved imlooked for 
triumphs. The experiences of their predecessors offered 
little or no prospect of new discoveries, but as Captain Scott 
wrote of that ' wonderful voyage ' : 
When the extent of our knowledge before and after it is 
considered, all must concede that it deserves to rank among 
the most brilhant and famous that have been made. After 
all the preceding experiences and adventures in the Southern 
Seas, few things could have looked more hopeless than an 
attack upon that great ice-bound region which lay within 
the Antarctic Circle ; yet out of this desolate prospect 
Ross wrested an open sea, a vast mountain region,, a smoking 
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