Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

14 AUSTRALASIA.where he'came close to the bhick rocks of a line of cliffs,Wilkes kept everywhereat a distance of about twelve miles from the ice-fringed land, which appearedto be everywhere covered with hoar-frost. East of the Balleny Islands, he al.soreported a mountain mass on the very spot where James Ross, sailing in an opensea, afterwards failed to touch the bottom with a sounding-line 1,000 fathoms long.But whatever view be taken of the true character of Wilkes Land, it is certainthat east of the Balleny Archipelago the sea extends much farther southwards.James Ross explored these waters in 1841 and 1842, each time penetrating nearerto the South Pole than any previous or subsequent navigator. In 1842, theexpedition specially equipped for piercing the ice floes reached 78° 9 30", which,however, is still over 800 miles in a bee-line from the South Pole, or nearly 400miles short of the corresponding point reached in the Arctic Zone.During his firstvoyage, Ross followed southwards the east coast of a region which he namedVictoria Land, and which is lined by imposing mountains such as the glitteringice-capped peak of Sabrina (10,000 feet), and the still loftier Melbourne, rising toan altitude of considerably over 13,000 feet.At the point where the expedition was compelled to turn back, there toweredabove the ice-bound waters the twin volcanoes of Erebus (12,000 feet) and Terror(11,000 feet), the former of which emitted volumes of smoke, murkj' during theday and ruddy at night.The navigators, who had succeeded in getting ashore attwo places on this Austral continent, were prevented from landing near thevolcanoes bj' a wall of ice nearly 350 feet high, which formed the escarpmentof a vast plain at least 300 miles broad.East of Victoria Land the expeditions of Cook and Bellingshausen have revealedthe existence of no Antarctic mainland south of the East Pacific waters, or of anyland at all, except a doubtful islet reported by Cook, and by him named StoneIsland. But in the region south of America, facing Cape Horn and the neighbouringarchipelagoes, the islands or perhaps the coasts of a great Antarctic landhave been seen at several points in the neiglibourhood of the polar circle. HereBellingshausen discovered Alexander Land, which is probably continuous with thehilly coast of Graham's Land observed by Biscoe in 1832, and more carefullyindicated by Dallman in 1874. Then to the north-east of this elevated groundstretch parallel chains of numerous islands, comprising Louis-Philippe and de JoinvilleLands, discovered by 'Dumont d'Urville, the Shetland Isles and SouthernOrkneys, already sighted by the English and American whalers, and perhaps evenby the Dutch vessel Van Geerifs in 1598. All these are mountainous massesencircled by deep waters where the sounding-line records hundreds of fathomsAvithin a few cable-lengths of the shore.But immediately to the east of these archipelagoes, Captain Weddell, incommand of a whaler, forced a passage in 1823 through the floating ice andentered a perfectly open sea, where he penetrated southwards beyond the seventyfourthdegree of latitude.This is the southernmost point yet reached in the watersstretching south of the Atlantic. Farther east—that is, in the direction of WilkesLand—the only dry land yet seen are the coasts of Enderby and Kemp, extending