SUMMARY OF TH E VOYAGE.
w „ but the prevalence for several days of the densest fogs frustrated all attempts to
sight the land. This was much regretted, for few* of the plants of that interesting
group are known to botanists. After tracing the Macrocystis into the 57th parallel, the
ships entered an ice-pack of immense magnitude on the 18th of December, in lat 62° S
Here we were entangled till Feb. 2nd, 1842 (the midsummer of those cheerless re-
gions), making no more progress during that time than from the latitude just mentioned
to 68°, where we emerged into comparatively open water to the southward of a large
body of the pack, which however trended to the westward. At this time the season
was far advanced, and as, in the preceding year, the retreat had been commenced, througli
absolute necessity, on the 9th of February, so Captain Ross did not think proper now
to re-enter the pack-ice. but proceeded along its edge to the westward, advancing so far
as 187° W., and then to the southward and eastward. On the 20th of February a gale
came on, which, though in open water, was sufficiently trying ; the wind was very high,
and the spray which beat over the ships became frozen ere it reached the deck, forming
every object into a mass of ice ; the coils of rope were covered by an icy incrustation
several inches thick, and most of the running-gear about the bowsprits was carried
away by the weight of ice formed on it.
On the 23rd of February the expedition came in view of the grand Victoria Barrier :
the day being fine, the voyagers approached within a mile and a half of the Barrier, finally
reaching 78° 10' S. lat. in the long. 162° W., having made six miles farther than in the
preceding year, the highest latitude hitherto attained. Under all circumstances, this
was more than had been expected ; for after the long detention, the rapidly closing season
rendered any progress very difficult; but it was a great object to verify the magnetic
and other observations, and to ascertain still more positively the position of the pole.
Unable to proceed eastward, the retreat was commenced, tracing the pack edge Sea
weed was again met with on reaching the parallel of 64°, and occasionally seen when
running down the parallel of 60°, from 170° W. to 80° W., and thence in great abundance
to the Falkland Islands, where the ships anchored in Berkeley Sound on the 6th
of April 1842, not having seen land for 138 days, since leaving New Zealand.
A prolonged stay in the Falklands, though the season was winter (April to the
beginning of September), afforded ample opportunities for thoroughly investigating the
* These few were collected by Dr. Dieffenbach, and are now deposited in the collection of Sir W. J. Hooker.
SUMMARY OF TH E VOYAGE. ix
Flora o f that interesting and now highly important group, which, though it had been
partially examined by Admiral D ’Urville, and previously by the officers of that unfortunate
ship, the “ Uranie,” under the command of Captain Freycinet, still afforded
considerable novelty.
On the 6th of September, the early spring o f the southern latitudes, the “ Erebus
and Terror,” with a portion of the officers, sailed from Berkeley Sound for the neighbourhood
of Cape Horn, and arrived there, after having been driven far out of their course by
the equinoctial gales, on the 21 st, casting anchor in St. Martin’s Cove, Hermit Island, lat.
56°, within a few miles of the far-famed Cape Horn, which is immediately opposite the
mouth of the Cove. This is the most southerly spot on the globe which possesses anything
above a herbaceous vegetation. Here, in the sheltered bays, the two kinds of
A n ta r c t i c B e e c h , the E v e r g r e e n and D e c id u o u s , form a dense, though small forest, and
ascend, in a stunted form, to an elevation of 1000 feet on the hills. Many o f the plants
gathered during Cook’s first voyage, by Sir Joseph Banks and Solander, and by Forster
during his second, as also those which Mr. Menzies had detected, when accompanying
Vancouver’s expedition, and which have not been hitherto published, were found again ;
and when the ships returned to the Falklands in November, Captain Ross transported
many hundreds of y o u a ^ B e e c h - tr e e s and caused them to be planted there, in hopes that
the productions of so near a country might be found to succeed on these treeless islands.
Some were also sent home and have since been distributed in England, from the Royal
Botanic Gardens of Kew.
The third cruise to the South Polar Regions was commenced on the morning of
the 17th of December 1842, when the expedition sailed from Berkeley Sound. An opportunity
was afforded again of tracing the southern limit of Seaweeds. The M a c r o c
y s tis v ia s lost in lat. 55° S., long. 57° W. ; but on attaining lat. 63°, long. 54°, another
species appeared which had been originally discovered by Webster during the stay of
Captain Forster’s ship, the “ Chanticleer,” in Deception Island, one of the South Shetland
group, and again found by the expedition of Admiral D ’Urville, and has since been published
under the name of S c y to th a l ia J a c q u in o tii. On the 28th land was made, a portion
of Palmer’s Land, to which the name of “ Terre Louis Philippe” has since been
given by D ’Urville. The ships were already in the pack-ice. through which we penetrated,
tracing the land to 64°, and seeing a small volcanic island, lying a few miles off