Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
14
Figure 1.8. When Ross
discovered Mount Erebus,
the world's southernmost
active volcano, it was
“emitting smoke and flame
in great profusion.” The
volcano has remained
active to the present day,
with its plume of vapor
wafting from the summit.
As we approached the land under all studding sails, we perceived a low white
line extending from its eastern extreme point as far as the eye could see eastward.
It presented an extraordinary appearance, gradually increasing in height to a
perpendicular cliV of ice, between one hundred fifty and two hundred feet above
the level of the sea, perfectly flat and level at the top, and without any fissures or
promontories on its even seaward face. What was beyond that we could not imagine;
for being much higher than our masthead, we could not see anything.
As the ships closed on this wall of ice, Ross sighted what appeared to be high sum-
mits to the south of Mount Terror, but where they went was not observable. In a gesture
of symmetrical favor, he named them the Parry Mountains after his mentor, who had be-
stowed Ross's name on the northernmost known land some years before.
Ross's expedition tracked “the Barrier” more than three hundred miles to the east.
With soundings up to 410 fathoms (2,460 feet), Ross concluded correctly that the front,
at least, of this gigantic ice wall floated and was not based on land. After inventorying
the eVects of temperature changes and storms on the breakup of thick ice in the Arc-
tic, he wrote, “But this extraordinary barrier of ice, of probably more than a thousand
