1840.] d'urville's expedition. 281 



163° 11' E. He also thought he saw appearances of land in 

 the direction of the American discoveries. But the exami- 

 nations of Biscoe and Balleny were merely cursory, and there 

 is no reliable evidence that they were not deceived by ice- 

 blinks or fog-banks, except the naked fact that a continent 

 was subsequently discovered in this quarter by the exploring 

 squadron under the command of Captain Wilkes. 



Another claimant to the original discovery appeared in the 

 French admiral, Dumont d'Urville, so deservedly held in high 

 estimation, while living, for his numerous important discove- 

 ries, and his great scientific acquirements, and whose melan- 

 choly fate elicited such general expressions of regret.* This 

 eminent navigator left France, in 1837, with two corvettes — 

 V Astrolabe and la Zelee — on a voyage of discovery in the 

 Antarctic seas. After visiting the southern Pacific, and dis- 

 covering Louis Philippe Land, he proceeded to Hobarton to 

 refit his vessels for another cruise. lie sailed again from that 

 port, on the 1st of January, 1840. On the evening of the 

 19th instant he discovered land on the 142d meridian, east 

 longitude, and near 66° southern latitude.! Attempts to 

 reach the main shore were vainly made, but on the 21st 

 instant, some of the officers of the expedition succeeded in 

 graining a small islet within a short distance of the coast, and 

 obtained a number of specimens of the granitic rock of which 

 it was composed. The land was then traced in a continuous 

 line for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, between 

 the longitudes of 136° and 142° E., and in about the latitude 

 of the Antarctic circle. It appeared to be entirely covered 



* M. d'Urville was one of the victims of the fire that destroyed the cars on 

 the railroad between Paris and Versailles, on the 8th day of May, 1842. 



f Voyage au Pole Sud, ect, ect, torn, viii., p. 170 et seq. — Land was first dis- 

 covered by the American squadron, as has been stated, on the 16th of January, 

 some distance further to the east than the Terre Adelie of d'Urville, although 

 Captain Wilkes and his officers were not fully convinced on the subject till the 

 19th instant, the very day of the French discovery. This fact, and that of the 

 Americans necessarily following in the track of d'Urville, after they reached, in 

 their progress to the westward, the meridian where he was on the 19th instant, 

 though they went far beyond him, are the only really plausible arguments upon 

 which the French base their claim to the prior discovery. 



