216 THE ANTARCTIC. 



most extensive yet seen, and of which we possess obser- 

 vations and drawings made by Dumont d'Urville, which 

 agree very nearly with those made by Wilkes. The land 

 seems to have a tolerably uniform elevation of 3,000 feet 

 according to Wilkes, or of 3,280 to 3,900 feet according to 

 Dumont d'Urville. Not a single prominent summit rises 

 above these level undulating uplands, whose glaciated 

 declivities descend gradually to the coast, terminating 

 almost everywhere in the familiar, vertical ice barrier ; at 

 one spot only D'Urville saw the bare rock projecting 

 above the icy covering, forming a cape, noticeable more 

 by its colour than by its shape. D'Urville called a certain 

 shallow bay along the coast the " Baie des Ravines " ; the 



Pointe Geologie (after Dumont d'Urville). 



point of the coast first approached by him the " Cap de 

 la Decouverte," and another near which it was possible to 

 land, " Pointe Geologie ". The illustrations here given 

 are taken from the surveys of D'Urville and of Wilkes. 

 The coast seen here with greater accuracy comprises an 

 extent of 125 to 140 miles, encircled everywhere by an ice 

 barrier. Its monotony forms a perfect contrast to the 

 striking irregularities observed in various places of the snow 

 and ice-clad country. Near the " Cap de la Decouverte," 

 which bounds Wilkes' Piners Bay in the east, extensive 

 clefts were observed, and perhaps also gullies filled with 

 water from melted ice ; elsewhere the snow presented an 

 appearance as though it had been furrowed by a plough, 



