208 siege of the south pole 
was not really the fact, although Wilkes’s instructions 
actually enjoined such secrecy upon him; and no doubt 
both commanders were far better fellows than either sup- 
posed the other to be. 
In 131 0 E. and 64° 30' S. a solid wall of ice was seen 
to the southward and all day on January 30th the ships 
sailed along a coast similar to that of Adelie Land. From 
a distance of three or four miles it was seen to be a 
line of vertical ice-cliffs from 120 to 130 feet high. A 
sounding was taken with 200 fathoms of line and no 
bottom found. The ice-barrier was perfectly horizontal 
on the top, showing no appearance of mountains behind 
it nor of rocks in front; but judging from analogy with 
Adelie Land D’Urville decided that so great a mass of 
fixed ice must either envelope land, or a group of rocks, 
or at least must rest on an extensive shoal lying off the 
coast of a land existing farther to the south, and in this 
belief he named it Cote Clarie after Madame Jacquinot. 
Next day, the course having been followed to the 
westward, the ships lost sight of the solid barrier and 
were confronted by an ordinary ice-pack through which 
there was no inducement to try to penetrate. A last 
attempt was made to get magnetic observations on an 
iceberg, but it was impossible to effect a landing. D’Ur- 
ville felt that his task was now fulfilled. He was himself 
in bad health and constant suffering, and though he be- 
lieved that the greater part of the Antarctic circle was 
surrounded by land which might be reached by anyone 
bold and fortunate enough to penetrate the surrounding 
ice-pack, he thought it would be cruelty to force his 
exhausted crews to fresh exertions. At any rate they 
had now learned that the “ old chappie ” was able to lead 
them farther than they wished to go. So on February 
