CHAPTER XIV VOYAGES OF THE EREBUS AND TERROR
A Fortunate Choice—Characteristic Southern Bergs—First Sight of the Continent—More British Territory—A Mighty Volcanic Display—Nearing the Magnetic Pole—The Antarctic Barrier—A Myth Dispelled—A Second Attempt—Held by the Ice—Third and Last Voyage—A Double Discovery.
The American and French expeditions having already selected areas for their operations, Sir James Ross, not wishing to clash with them in any way, directed his attention to that part of the Antarctic lying to the south of Australia and New Zealand as his sphere of operations. Fortune favoured him in this selection, for it is at this part of the Antarctic region—situated between the meridians of 160° E. and 160° W. longitude—that open water extends farthest into the high latitudes. He chose the meridian of 170° E. as the line on which to sail to the south. It was on this meridian that Balleny, in 1839, had found open water as high as 69° S. The Erebus and Terror were equally fortunate, and they were well to the south before they encountered sufficient ice to prove difficult to navigation. Mostly they encountered icebergs, and they were thus afforded excellent opportunities to note the peculiarities of the southern bergs, and to compare them with those of the Arctic. There was a manifest difference in both form and structure. Those of the Antarctic showed little variety in shape, and in this they were in marked contrast to the Arctic bergs. The bergs of the South were very solid in appearance, with perpendicular grooves on the sides, and level table-top summits. In size they ranged from 120 to 180 feet in height, with a length varying from a few hundred yards to a couple of miles.
Land was first sighted on January 11, 1841, when the ships were in lat. 70° 23' S. and long. 174° 50' E. The appearance of the land suggested the tops of mountain peaks fully a hundred miles away. As the ships sailed on, other peaks showed above the horizon, both to the east and the west, and the majesty of their size left no room for doubt that they were part of an area of land attaining to continental proportions. In his account of the expedition, Sir James Ross wrote: "It was a beautifully clear evening, and we had a most enchanting view of the two magnificent ranges of mountains, whose lofty peaks, perfectly covered with eternal snow, rose to elevations varying from 7000 to 10,000 feet above the level of the ocean. The glaciers that filled their intervening valleys, and which descended from near the mountain summits, projected, in many places, several miles into the sea, and terminated in lofty, perpendicular cliffs. In a few places the rock broke through the icy covering, by which alone we could be assured that land formed the nucleus of this, to appearance, enormous iceberg."
The range was named Admiralty Mountains, and the various peaks after the different Lords of the Admiralty. With patriotic pride the leader recorded that "the discovery of this land restored to Great Britain the honour of having discovered the southernmost known land, which had been so nobly won by the intrepid Bellinghausen, and for more than twenty years retained by Russia."
The amount of ice along, and off, the shore prevented a landing being made, but it was found to be possible to get ashore on an island not far away from the mainland. The island was named Possession Island, in commemoration of the fact that on its shores the ceremony of taking possession of the newly discovered lands in the name of Great Britain was duly celebrated. Situated in lat. 71° 56' S. and long. 171° 7' E., the island was found to be of igneous formation and accessible only on its western shore. There were no signs of vegetation on the bare volcanic rocks, "but myriads of penguins completely and densely covered the whole surface of the island, along the ledges of the precipices, and even to the summits of the hills, attacking us vigorously as we waded through their ranks, and pecking at us with their sharp beaks, disputing possession; which, with their loud, coarse notes and the insuperable stench from the deep bed of guano, which had been forming for ages, and which may, at some time, be valuable to the agriculturists of our Australian colonies, made us glad to get away again, after having loaded our boats with geological specimens and penguins."
As the voyage continued, the height of the mountains lying further to the south of Admiralty Mountains was observed to be from 12,000 to 14,000 feet, the majority being obviously of volcanic origin. While noting these characteristics, a phenomenon was witnessed which, for the moment, suggested that they were in the presence of a mighty volcanic upheaval. An angle was being measured, when, in the line of sight, an island, about one hundred feet high, suddenly seemed to rise from the ocean. All eyes were turned upon it, the dark colour of the new arrival standing out in such pronounced contrast with the whiteness of the ice around it. Then one, more observant than the rest, drew attention to the fact that a large berg previously observed at the place where the island had risen, had completely disappeared. At once the riddle was solved. The berg had turned over, and, as the lower portion was composed of earth-stained ice, it stood out in such strong relief against the other ice that the mistake was easily accounted for.
One of the mountains slowly coming into view on the horizon as the ships continued their way was so remarkably like Mount Etna in appearance that it was so named by the members of the expedition, but official requirements of the case necessitated another name being given to it. It was entered in the record as Mount Melbourne, while another, lying beyond it, was named Mount Monteagle. These were the highest mountains seen up to that time, and presented an imposing appearance. Yet others were sighted in the course of a few days which quite eclipsed them. These were the two volcanoes which were named after the two vessels, Mount Erebus and Mount Terror.
Mount Erebus, 12,400 feet high, was in active eruption when first seen, and has been so on every occasion that man has looked upon it since. At the time of its discovery it was giving a display that was extraordinarily grand, the more so by reason of its surroundings. It was snow-clad to within a few hundred feet of its conical summit, while its huge base rested on a wide stretch of ice, gleaming and shimmering in the sunlight. Between the ice wall, hundreds of feet high, which marked the coast line, and the vessels, the water was blue and clear, reflecting the hue of the sky above. From the crater alternate bursts of smoke and flame were flung up, the rumbling sound of the explosions floating down through the frozen stillness in a faint echo like that of heavy distant artillery fire. In the official account it is described as follows:—
"A volume of dense smoke was projected at each successive jet with great force, in a vertical column to a height of between 1500 and 2000 feet above the mouth of the crater, when, condensing at its upper part, it descended in mist or snow, to be succeeded by another splendid exhibition of the same kind in about half-an-hour afterwards, although the intervals between the eruptions were by no means regular. The diameter of the column of smoke was between 200 and 300 feet, as near as we could measure it. Whenever the smoke cleared away, the bright red flames that filled the mouth of the crater were clearly perceptible, and some of the officers believed they could see streams of lava pouring down its side until lost beneath the snow, which descended from a few hundred feet below the crater and projected its perpendicular icy cliffs several miles into the ocean."