HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS 313 



DUMONT D'URVILLEi 



Jules-Sebastien-Cesar Diimont D'Urville sailed from France in 1837 with definite in- 

 structions from the Minister of Marine to explore that region to the south of the South 

 Shetlands and South Sandwich Islands where Weddell had attained such a high latitude 

 in 1823. In January and February 1838, with the corvettes 'Astrolabe' and 'Zelee', 

 each carrying over a hundred men, D'Urville made two unsuccessful attempts to exceed 

 Weddell 's high southern record and in the course of these attempts he twice visited the 

 South Orkneys. On the first occasion, after having been baulked in his eff^orts to push 

 far south between the Elephant-Clarence group and the South Orkneys, he sighted the 

 eastern end of Laurie Island on January 26. Rounding Cape Dundas, for the next three 

 days he sailed west along the northern coasts of the group arriving in the meridian of 

 the western end of Coronation Island on the 29th. The day before he had entered 

 Lewthwaite Strait with the object of examining Spence's Harbour but had been pre- 

 vented from doing so by adverse winds and tide. He now stood north-east away from 

 the islands in very heavy weather and then again turned south and tried to push his way 

 through the pack to the south of the South Sandwich Islands and the South Orkneys ; 

 but being again thwarted, he returned to the South Orkneys sighting Cape Dundas on 

 February 20. He had hoped now to examine the southern side of the archipelago, but 

 heavy ice and bad weather compelled him again to double Cape Dundas and sail along 

 the northern coasts. On the forenoon of the 20th a party landed on Weddell Island and 

 made a considerable collection of birds and rocks. Thereafter D'Urville continued to sail 

 along the north coast of Coronation Island until the 22nd when he finally departed for 

 the South Shetlands. 



D'Urville gives a long and sometimes highly coloured description of his two visits to 

 the South Orkneys, which, oflF and on, appear to have been accompanied by a good deal 

 of discomfort. His crews were tired and disappointed after their recent set-back in the 

 pack-ice and were much in need of fresh meat. Moreover, tired as they were, when the 

 weather became bad they were compelled to ride out gales far from shelter, as D'Urville, 

 himself in bad health, appears to have been unwilling to venture his ships close inshore 

 on such an inhospitable coast. It is scarcely surprising that it was with some disfavour 

 that he regarded these ice-bound islands which he describes in the somewhat too vivid 

 and long-drawn-out manner that was fashionable at the time. " Nul aspect au monde", 

 he writes, "ne peut etre plus triste, plus repoussant que celui de ces contrees 

 desolees. Apres s'etre longtemps promene sur les plaines immenses de glaces qui 

 s'etendent sans interruption de la base jusqu'au sommet de cette chaine de montagnes, 

 I'oeil fatigue s'attriste encore plus en s'arretant sur ces rochers nus, arides et escarpes 

 dont la teinte noire et lugubre vient seule rompre la blanche uniformite de la cote." 

 Besides D'Urville's own account there are copious notes by his officers, all of whom are 

 agreed regarding the desolate and fearful nature of the country, and the enormous num- 

 bers of icebergs of diverse and sometimes grotesque shape that were encountered in its 

 1 See Voyage au Pole Sud, Histoire du Voyage, i, p. viii, 2, pp. 41-138, 230-41 and 314-20. 



