DUMONT D’URVILLE 
195 
cultured mankind the discovery of the Venus de Milo will 
probably be held the crowning glory of a life ; from the 
point of view of this volume we can refer to it merely as 
a picturesque incident. 
Returning to Paris in 1821 D’Urville joined with Du- 
perry and others in founding the Paris Geographical So- 
ciety, now the oldest association of the kind and always 
one of the most active in promoting the science of the 
Earth. The two naval officers drew up plans for a sci- 
entific voyage of circumnavigation which were approved 
and they were appointed to carry it out on board the 
Coquille, on which service D’Urville was at sea from 1822 
to 1825. He was not altogether satisfied with the result. 
He considered that some branches of science in which 
he was particularly interested had been unduly neglected 
and he planned another expedition to the islands of the 
Pacific by which this wrong would be redressed. This also 
was approved, but the Ministry of Marine imposed upon 
it the additional duty of seeking out the recently reported 
traces of the ships of La Perouse. The Coquille was 
again placed under D’Urville’s command but at his urgent 
request she was rechristened Astrolabe in memory of one 
of La Perouse’s vessels. For three years, 1826 to 1829, Du- 
mont D’Urville was at sea on this great mission in which 
he was entirely successful, discovering the wreck of La 
Perouse’s ship and recovering many relics of the explorer. 
On his return he settled down to prepare the description 
of the voyage, a work extending to twenty volumes. 
When deep in the congenial task he was rudely inter- 
rupted by the revolution of 1830 and had to perform the 
ungrateful duty of escorting King Charles X. from 
France. By a strange coincidence D’Urville had been 
an officer on the ship which brought the Orleans family 
