460 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
completely hidden under the layers of snow which cover them. On this 
hypothesis, however, I acknowledge that it is difficult to explain the 
perfect uniformity of the ice-layers which formed our great wall; I am 
reluctant to admit that such gigantic masses are the product of a single 
year, and if not, one ought to distinguish the deposition of successive 
years by layers more or less horizontally inclined. However this may 
be, at 10 p.m. I gave the order to sail south-west, after having bestowed 
the name of Clarice Coast on the barrier of ice we had just been 
exploring. 
Jan. 31.—The next day, the 31st, I expected to find once more our 
ice-wall, but at 3 am., although I had gone to the south during the 
night, we saw in its place only a formidable chain of floating islands. 
We noticed at the same time, in the south-west, that well-marked 
clearness which appears at twilight above ice-fields. Soon after, indeed, 
we saw in this direction an ice-pack which stretched to the west and 
north-west, as far as the eye could see, seeming to form a great gulf 
round us. This pack resembled all those we had already seen. It was 
flanked by immense ice-islands, bound together by a layer of small blocks 
of ice (glagons), less thick, but yet offering an insurmountable obstacle 
to our ships. We had then reached 128° long. The variation, from 
being north-east, had become north-west and very marked. Thus, during 
those tempestuous days, we had passed the meridian where the declina- 
tion isnought. MM. Dumoulin and Coupvent believed they had gathered 
sufficient data to determine the position of the south magnetic pole. 
Nevertheless they still wished to observe the declination with the ship 
heading in every direction, and once more to take magnetic observations 
on a floating iceberg (glagon). Consequently I spent all day looking 
for a suitable iceberg on which to land these officers. At midday I 
thought I had succeeded. I sighted an ice-island horizontally inclined, 
on which it seemed possible to land; the whale-boat was lowered, but 
on approaching it our men realised the impossibility of climbing up it. 
The sea broke against it with force, and the spray rose more than five 
metres high. Also, the horizontal part was formed of a layer of 
extremely smooth and slippery ice. 
Feb. 1—The next day opened under conditions which were more 
favourable to our operations. It was almost a calm, and the swell was 
very gentle for these latitudes, which are constantly lashed by storms. 
Several ice-islands were in sight, and seemed to our physicists to offer 
better opportunities than those of the evening before. One of them 
especially showed a vast plateau, but slightly raised above the level of 
the sea. At 8 a.m. the whale boat, with the physical instruments on 
board, attempted to come up alongside of it to leeward, while the 
corvettes made short tacks in order not to drift away. For a moment I 
hoped to have attained the object I had been pursuing for the last two 
days, but soon I saw the boat, having made the circuit of the first ico 
