WILKES LAND. 217 



and in open unprotected places it lay in ridges like the 

 sand in a wind-lashed desert. It is highly probable that 

 D'Urville saw real snow-dunes, similar to the mighty 

 snow-drifts distinctly observed on the higher levels of the 

 country. The greatest disturbances were noticed on the 

 inland ice at the back of the " Baie des Ravines," where 

 it was so traversed by intersecting systems of clefts that 

 the country appeared to be strewn with isolated gigantic 

 ice-blocks. Characteristically enough the very iceberg 

 bore traces of these convulsions ; their sides were per- 



Coast Island at Pointe Geologie (after Dumont d'Urville). 



pendicular as usual, but their surfaces were a chaos of ice 

 fragments. In the neighbourhood of " Pointe Geologic " 

 a chain of rocky islets lies fronting the coast, and on one 

 of them D'Urville effected a landing, in consequence of 

 which we possess some geological knowledge of at least 

 this one spot. It is highly interesting to learn that here 

 also crystalline slate was found — gneiss or amphibolite, or 

 probably both ; the summit of the islet visited was broken 

 up into blocks. Of vegetation nothing was seen on this 

 the only spot of Wilkes Land visited by man. The 



