DUMONT D’URVILLE 
203 
erless to move though the sea was clear, dotted only by 
ice-islands harmlessly drifting toward them across the 
unattainable circle. D’Urville suffered the tortures of Tan- 
talus, he says, for the land stretched as far as the eye could 
reach to the southeast and the northwest with an apparent 
altitude of from 3000 to 4000 feet ; no prominent summit 
broke the uniformity of the sky-line, no trace of earth 
or rock was visible and the shore was an unbroken ver- 
tical cliff of ice so like that of the floating ice-islands 
that no one on board could for a moment doubt that the 
bergs were simply broken off from the land ice. So clear 
was the atmosphere that the snow covering the gently 
receding slopes of the ice-covered land was seen to be 
thrown into waves like those formed by the wind in desert 
sand. 
Father Antarctic evidently got tired of waiting for the 
corvettes to enter his domain; and during the idle calm 
of the forenoon he appeared on board in all his pomp sur- 
rounded by a retinue of penguins and seals, while a swarm 
of sea-birds flew screaming round the becalmed ships. A 
mock religious ceremony was held, including a blasphe- 
mous sermon which would have horrified the commanders 
of the other expeditions had they known of it, and termi- 
nating in a banquet where wine flowed freely and the ships 
resounded with mirth, but everything “ passed off per- 
fectly well and there was not the least disorder.” Every 
officer and man having paid his footing the portals of the 
Antarctic were thrown open ; and with the rising sun of 
January 21st “ a pretty little breeze ” conducted the ships 
along the newly discovered coast through an avenue of 
“ those palaces of crystal and diamonds so common in 
fairy tales.” The rare days of perfect weather in the far 
south were never before so fully appreciated or so vividly 
