INTRODUCTION 



Zelee, under Captain Jacquinot, which sailed from 

 Toulon on September 7, 1837. The two ships reached 

 the pack-ice on January 22, 1838, but were unable to do 

 more than sail to and fro along its edge until February 27, 

 when land was sighted in 63° South and named Louis 

 Philippe Land and Joinville Island. These were, un- 

 doubtedly, part of the Palmer Land of the American 

 sealers, and a continuation of Biscoe's Graham Land. 

 Though he did not reach the Antarctic Circle, d'Urville 

 had got to the end of the Antarctic summer and dis- 

 charged his debt of duty to his instructions. 



It was the avowed intention of the American expedi- 

 tion and of the British expedition, since fitted out, to find 

 the South Magnetic Pole, the position of which was be- 

 lieved from the theoretical investigations of Gauss to be 

 near 66° South and 146° East. In December 1839, when 

 d'Urville was at Hobart Town, and the air was full of 

 rumours of these expeditions, he suddenly made up his 

 mind to exceed his instructions and make a dash for the 

 South Magnetic Pole for the honour of France. He left 

 Hobart on January 1, 1840, and on the 21st sighted land 

 on the Antarctic Circle in longitude 138° E. The 

 weather was perfect, the icebergs shone and glittered in 

 the sun like fairy palaces in the streets of a strange 

 southern Venice; only wind was wanting to move the 

 ships. The snow-covered hills rose to a height of about 

 1500 ft. and received the name of Adelie Land, after 

 Madame Dumont d'Urville. A landing was made on 

 one of a group of rocky islets lying off the icebound 

 shore, and the ships then followed the coast westward for 

 two days. In 135° 30' West bad weather and a north- 

 ward bend in the ice drove the corvettes beyond the Circle, 

 and on struggling south again on January 28, in the lift 

 of a fog, the Astrolabe sighted a brig flying the American 



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