THE JOURNAL OF M. J. DUMONT-D’URVILLE. 451 
marked degree. For an instant I hoped to collect specimens of it, 
but we were still too far off to lower a boat to go for them; the wind 
dropped, and our corvettes were caught by currents and borne away 
far to the west. 
Also among the floating icebergs we had noticed several with a brown 
colour, as if they had been soiled by contact with the earth. It is pro- 
bable that these singular effects cannot always be referred to freaks of 
light, which vary to an infinite degree among these gigantic masses with 
their manifold forms. All these ice-islands are probably produced near 
the shore, and afterwards, on becoming detached, carry away with them 
débris attesting their origin. There was one of these extraordinary 
blocks a little distance in front of us, and I was most anxious to approach 
it; but the breeze did not spring up till after sunset. It was midnight 
when we passed it, coming quite close up toit. It had then the look of 
earth ; but it was impossible to recognise the cause of this particular colour. 
Jan. 23.—At 4 a.m. the watch reported that the sea was blocked in 
front of us by a chain of ice-islands. The sky was magnificent. There 
was no indication yet of any change in the weather. The breeze was 
light and regular, the sea absolutely calm. Being desirous of prolong- 
ing my examination of the land as far as possible, I wished at first to try 
and continue my course between the land and the chain of islands which 
had been reported to me; but as we approached, the man on the look- 
out sighted fresh ice-islands which were soon seen to be linked together 
by a continuous pack. This ice barrier, resting on the land to the 
south, stretched northwards, and then round to the east; we came very 
close to it; it was similar to those we had met in our first circumpolar 
expedition. Large icebergs surmounted it on all sides. The sea broke 
against it with force without shaking it. 
Although my plans were thus unexpectedly upset, I hoped that the 
pack would not stretch far to the north, and that we could thus soon 
double it, and by sailing along it keep our course westwards. Fora 
moment I thought that the ice-pack, ending about the 66th parallel, would 
leave us a free passage towards the west. There, however, it formed a 
great gulf, and in the centre nothing was to be seen but a line of float~ 
ing islands, among which it would have been easy to pass ; but in running 
north we again saw the ice-pack, which drove us east by barring our 
course. The weather continued magnificent. This field of ice, seen 
from the rigging, glittered under the oblique rays of the sun with a 
brilliancy like that of diamonds. In the midst we perceived an enor- 
mous mountain of ice, which so far surpassed in diameter those we had 
seen before, that we supposed there must be a nucleus of land to serve 
as its base. ‘The wind being always east, we had to tack in order to 
emerge from the cul-de-sac in which we were caught. All day we re- 
mained in sight of this ice mountain, but nothing occurred to confirm 
our speculations regarding it. 
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