Antarctic Discoveries . 
413 
some hundred miles, than any of our predecessors; and from 
the multitude of observations that have been made in both ships, 
and in so many different directions from it, its position can be 
determined with nearly as much accuracy as if we had actually 
reached the spot itself. 
It had ever been an object of anxious desire with us to find a 
harbour for the ships, so as to enable us to make simultaneous 
observations with the numerous observatories that would be at 
work on the important term-day of the 28th of February, as 
well as for other scientific purposes; but every part of the coast 
where indentations appeared, and where harbours on other 
shores usually occur, we found so perfectly filled with perennial 
ice, of many hundred feet in thickness, that all our endeavours 
to find a place of shelter for our vessels were quite unavailing. 
Having now completed all that it appeared to me possible to 
accomplish in so high a latitude, and at so advanced a period of 
the season, and desirous to obtain as much information as pos¬ 
sible of the extent, and form of the coast we had discovered, as 
also to guide in some measure our future operations, I bore 
away, on the 18th of February, for the north part of this land, 
which, by favour of a strong southerly gale, we readied on 
the morning of the 21st. 
We again endeavoured to effect a landing on this part of the 
coast, and were again defeated in our attempt by the heavy pack, 
which extended for many miles from the shore, and rendered it 
impossible. 
For several days we continued to examine the coast to the 
westward, tracing the pack-edge along, until, on the 25th of 
February, we found the land abruptly to terminate in latitude 
70° 40' S., and longitude 165° E., tending considerably to the 
southward of west, and presenting to our view an immense 
space occupied by a dense pack, now so firmly cemented together 
by the newly-formed ice, and so covered by recent snow, as to 
present the appearance of one unbroken mass, and defying every 
attempt to penetrate it. 
The great southern land we have discovered, whose con¬ 
tinuity we have traced from nearly the 70th to the 79th degree of 
latitude, I am desirous to distinguish by the name of Her Most 
Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria. 
Following the edge of the pack to the N.W. as weather 
permitted, we found it to occupy the whole space between the 
N.W. shore of the great southern land and the chain of Islands 
lying near the Antarctic circle, first discovered by Balleny in 
1839, and more extensively explored by the American and 
French expeditions in the following year. 
Continuing our course to the westward, we approached the 
place where Professor Gauss supposed the magnetic pole to be, 
and having obtained all the observations that were necessary to 
