312 NOTES ON THE BOTANY 
attained by the brave but unfortunate D’Urville, during 
his attempt to follow in the same (that is Weddell’s) 
track. 
wished to follow. Cook, in 1775, had met with ice in the 60th degree ; 
Powell, in 1721, had been unable to proceed beyond 62; Biscoe had 
attained 63 with difficulty, while Weddell declared that he found open 
water as high as the 71st degree. The ships accordingly sailed in that 
direction and through smooth seas; but, on the 18th of January, an 
iceberg eighty feet high, was suddenly seen ahead of the Astrolabe. 
These floating masses became more and more numerous, and on the 
22nd, in lat. ‘ about’? 65 degrees, an immense barrier was descried 
stretching all along the line of horizon. It would be difficult to con- 
ceive the magnificence of this threatening spectacle; in which the eye 
continually séems to descry some striking work of architecture; as gothic 
cathedrals of the richest sculpture, or groups of glittering obelisks and 
temples gigantic as those of Ellora, or perhaps vast quarries of sparkling 
marble, or an immense city, bristling with edifices, all as if viewed 
through the vapory and confused mist of dawning morn. 
“Had not this scene been replete with perils, the eye might have dwelt 
upon it with delight; but the danger was too pressing, with the foe in 
full view. For several days, the ships coasted this eternal wall, in hopes 
of detecting some aperture, and every where it presented the same firm 
and formidable appearance. Many times the ships were entangled amid 
enormous glaciers, till on the 3rd of February, a barrier, 200 toises 
broad, cut off their return to the open sea. What was the terror of our 
erews, and how earnestly did they labour to extricate themselves with 
levers, saws, and hatchets! By dintof ropes and manual exertions, the 
ships were, in five days, hauled into a narrow lane between the icebergs, 
and the wind becoming favourable, they hoisted all sail and made a final 
and successful effort; and alternately pushing and being pulled, though 
at the risk of flying into a thousand shivers, they gained the open water. 
Thus safe, though much damaged, the vessels escaped from a week of 
appalling confinement. 
. “This convincing proof seemed to forbid any exposure to new perils 
on the faith of Weddell. But loth to quit these latitudes with only dis- 
appointment, M. D'Urville pursued the line of the barrier for three 
hundred miles, and only quitted it when accumulated ice blocked up 
his passage. He then returned upon the Orkneys and the eastern shore 
of New South Shetland, completing their geography ; and being anxious 
to ascertain the true nature of those snowy peaks to which whalers had 
assigned the names of Palmer’s Land and Trinity, and which had also 
been variously called by Forster, Biscoe, and Morrell, he made for these 
