450 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
a ship on such a coast would force it to go out to sea at once and 
abandon its boats.” 
After this excursion, which left no more doubt as to the reality 
of our discovery, it remained only for me to extend the examination 
of it as far as possible. The weather seemed to lend itself favourably 
to this difficult course. The wind was east and blew us slowly west- 
wards. Up to that time, and while any doubt remained, I did not 
wish to give any name to our discovery; but on the return of our boats 
I gave it the name of Adélie Land. The very projecting cape which 
we had seen in the morning when we were trying to get near the land, 
received the name of Cape Découverte. The point near to which our 
boats landed, and where they collected the geological specimens, was 
named Point Geology. . 
-CHAPTER LX. 
Examination of Adélie Land.—Navigation along the ice-pack.— Examination 
of Clarie Coast.—Return of the corvettes to Hobart Town. 
1840. Jan. 22.—The nights had become so short that we hardly 
lost sight of the land after sunset. At 1 a.m. we could again see every 
detail. The breeze was so light that we had hardly moved. However, 
towards nine o’clock we had arrived off a vast, and quite open, bay. 
There the ice-crust which covered the land seemed furrowed in every 
direction by deep ravines, which caused me to name it the Bay of 
Ravines. We had already noticed a similar phenomenon before reaching 
Cape Pépin, but at the head of the bay the ice which covered the ground 
appeared so tossed about, that one would have said it had been thrown 
on to the ground in enormous blocks, as is often seen in recent volcanic 
regions. A multitude of floating islands of colossal dimensions were 
moving into the open. Their sides were formed of upright walls, but 
the upper surface, instead of being level, seemed also covered with: 
pieces of ice, the crystal prisms of which crossed each other in every: 
direction. This chain of scattered ice-islands produced a most singular 
effect. They probably rested on the bottom, perhaps even on separate 
islets, which served them for a base. Several times the man on the 
look-out thought he could distinguish dark spots among them; but it 
often happens that ice takes on a dark colour according as the light 
strikes it, and the indications of Jand which were reported were never 
sufficiently decided to establish for certain the hypothesis I have just 
thrown out. Several times we noticed also reddish tints in the floating 
ice without being able to guess the cause. Hven on our course we met 
a small iceberg (glagon) which showed this strange hue in a very 
