88 THE ANTARCTIC. 



of the newly-discovered lands the name of the Ant- 

 arctic Continent, and the bay in which he rode he called 

 Piner's Bay. Several of the officers appeared to think 

 they could see smoke rising from the summits of the 

 mountains, but Wilkes was of opinion this effect was 

 produced merely by snowdrift. Wilkes' success in 

 pushing forward to the very coast took place at the 

 same time as the meeting of the Porpoise with the 

 French vessels as already related. The Vincennes as 

 well as the Porpoise now steered on to the west, being 

 prevented by the violent snowstorm of the following 

 day from sighting any land. On the other hand, the 

 Porpoise, on the ist of February, and the Vincennes, 

 on the 2nd, saw the vertical ice barrier already seen 

 by D'Urville — Wilkes' observations making their posi- 

 tion latitude 66° 12' S. and longitude 137° 2 E. On 

 the 2nd of February Wilkes sailed the whole day 

 in uninterrupted view of land, which he was able to 

 approach for a short distance from the position in- 

 dicated above. It was everywhere closed by the ice 

 barrier, which Wilkes judged to be 160 to 200 feet high. 

 On the 3rd of February a violent storm beat back the 

 ship to the north ; on the 6th Wilkes was again in sight of 

 the ice-wall, and was able on the 7th clearly to see the 

 elevated land beyond it, and to observe that both the ice- 

 wall and the land made a sudden deviation to the south. 

 This point, situated in latitude 64° 49/ S. and longitude 131° 

 40' E., and named Cape Carr by Wilkes, is identical with 

 the western extremity of D'Urville's Cote Clarie. 



The Vincennes attempted on the 8th of February to 

 follow the course of the ice barrier beyond Cape Carr 

 to the south, but was unsuccessful owing to the enormous 

 number of icebergs. Land was lost sight of, and was 

 not again seen till the evening, when it appeared in the 

 far distance from latitude 65° 3' S. and longitude 127° 7' 

 E., when it was named North's Highland. 



