THE JOURNAL OF M. J. DUMONT-D’URVILLE. 449 
a hammer and began to hew at the rock. But it was so hard, being of a 
granite nature, that we could only detach very small pieces. Happily, 
while wandering on the summit of the island, the sailors discovered 
large fragments of rock detached by frost, and these they took into our 
boats. In a short time we had enough to supply specimens to all our 
museums and to others besides. In examining them closely, I recognised 
a perfect resemblance between these rocks and some small fragments that 
we had found in the stomach of a penguin killed the evening before. 
These fragments could, if necessary, have given an exact idea of the 
geological formation of this land, if it had been impossible to go on shore 
there. However extraordinary may be this way of doing geology, it 
proves how much interest the smallest observations may have for the 
naturalist, often even helping him in his researches, by leading him 
sometimes on to the track of discoveries to which they scem to be the 
most foreign. The small islet (éot) on which we landed is one of a 
group of eight or ten small islands rounded above, and all presenting 
pretty much the same form. These islands are separated from the 
nearest coast by a distance of 500-600 metres. We noticed along the 
shore several more tops quite bare, and one cape of which the base was 
also free from snow; but we noticed also a great quantity of ice which 
made the approach to it very difficult. All these islets, very close to 
each other, seemed to form a continuous chain parallel to the coast from 
east to west. All the ice islands, accumulated in the eastern part, which 
seemed to me fixed, probably cover other islets similar to those on which 
we had landed. It is certain that many rocks must be buried every year 
by enormous masses of ice, of which they form the nucleus. Perhaps even 
the great land in front of us was cut up by numerous channels. The 
hydrographical records which were made in these latitudes can have no 
other object than to determine the form of the glaciers at the moment of 
our passage without showing the contour of the coast, which must 
rarely be free from the thick crust covering the soil. 
“We did not leave these islets till 9.30; we were entranced by the 
treasures we carried away. Before hoisting sail we saluted our dis- 
covery with a general hurrah, to bid it a last good-bye. The echoes 
of these silent regions, for the first time disturbed by human voices, 
repeated our cries and then returned to their habitual silence, so gloomy 
and so imposing; favoured by a good easterly breeze, we took our course 
to the ships, which were bearing off from land, often disappearing in 
their tacks behind the great ice-islands. We reached them only at 
11 pm. The cold was then extremely sharp. The thermometer 
registered 5° below zero. The outsides of our boats, as well as the 
oars, were covered with a coating of ice. We were glad to get back 
on board the corvettes, happy to have thus completed our discovery 
without accident, for in this glacial and capricious climate it is not 
good to leave one’s ship for long at a time. The least wind overtaking 
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