218 THE ANTARCTIC. 



portions of these cliffs nearest to the land or ice barrier 

 were only about two to three furlongs off from these latter, 

 and from them could be clearly seen some summits near 

 the coast free from ice, but all the rest were fully glaciated. 

 This ice barrier is, however, less high than that of Victoria 

 Land ; its mean altitude being only ioo to 140 feet, and 

 the icebergs also attain corresponding heights. Farther 



Adelie Land, as seen from U.S.S Vincennes on 30th January, 1840 (after Wilkes). 



west, on the other hand, in longitude 137° E., Wilkes found 

 heights of 1 50 to 200 feet. 



The continuation of Adelie Land towards the north- 

 west was not seen by D'Urville, as he steered too far 

 north, but Wilkes kept it constantly in view, and saw its 

 outlines distinctly beyond the mass of inland ice of the 

 Clarie coast, which projects far to the north. But it seems 

 to be here somewhat lower than it is farther east, or else 

 it is a somewhat larger island in front of the coast, or even a 



Adelie Land, as seen from U.S.S Vincennes on ist February, 1S40 (after Wilkes). 



peninsula wholly glaciated like the rest. This is to be in- 

 ferred from the circumstance that the Porpoise had sailed 

 from the east into a long and rather narrow bay, whose 

 coasts south, west and north are beset by vertical walls of 

 ice. The theory that a gigantic mass of ice had got detached 

 there and drifted north is not tenable — the Clarie coast, that 

 is to say, the northern flank of the supposed peninsula, 

 having been seen by Balleny in the same position a year 



