LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 147 



poles towards the tropics, were not the cause of the phenomena 

 loticed. It seemed probable that this question might be solved 

 by thermometrical observations made for that purpose. These 

 were made on board the Astrolabe, but were they conducted with 

 sufficient exactnes-s ? Arago says he " does not hesitate to answer in 

 the negative," and then proceeds to point out the errors committed. 

 Indeed, after a long and minute analysis of the results of the voy- 

 age, he remarks, "it is now certain that, in cases of the most sim- 

 ple observations in the world, M. D'Urville has escaped none of 

 the errors he could possibly commit." 



Now, sir, I can readily imagine the surprise created in your 

 mind at what Arago has said of the results of this voyage, for a 

 full account of which I refer you to a late number of the " Review 

 of the 19th Century." How is this unsatisfactory issue to be ac- 

 counted for? I will tell you in one line. Among the persons 

 engaged in scientific observations on board the Astrolabe I find 

 " M. D'Urville took charge of botany, entomology, meteorology, 

 geography, historiography." 



You have the solution, sir. D'Urville undertook too much, and 

 failed ; and so will this expedition fail if you are permitted to cut 

 it down and reduce its naval and scientific corps. Human science 

 is too vast and too minute at the present day to allow of any man 

 taking so wide a range as that referred to. 



In the volume of the voyage of the Astrolabe devoted to hy- 

 drography, one eighteenth relates to the Fiji Islands. The space 

 occupied in the work by observations on this archipelago is very 

 considerable ; on which account I select that portion for "compar- 

 ison ;" and here you will find your heau ideal of voyages is a model 

 only to be avoided. On the 25th of May Captain D'Urville came 

 in sight of the Fiji Islands, and passed by Ong-Hea Riki. He 

 was eighteen days in making his way through this group, during 

 which time he never anchored, nor did lie make a survey of a 

 single harbour. He did not even send a boat on shore, except at 

 one place, and then only for the purpose of getting off an anchor 

 left there by some former vessel ; in allusion to which circum- 

 stance he remarks that " the natives appeared more disposed to 

 retain the boat than to give up the anchor." When D'Urville ap- 

 proached a cluster of islands, if the weather were clear, he first 

 made up his mind by sight alone whether they were five or thirty 



