Geographical Collections. uk 
always be our first object to give them the latest information, they will perceive 
that it is to their own advantage that this should be historically connected with 
the origin and progress of these expeditions,—that the antecedent numbers of the 
Journal may also always form the point of reference, where the first notice of ex- 
peditions must be looked for, whose progress and labours it may afterwards come 
under our province to describe. 
We have prefaced these remarks to our notice of the interesting expedition of 
the Astrolabe, in search of the remains of the unfortunate La Peyrouse, com- 
manded by a naval officer, (Mr. Dumont d’Urville,) well known to the scientific 
world, and of whose travels we shall introduce a short sketch, from a report read 
to the Royal Academy of Science and Belles Lettres of Caén, by Mr. P. A. 
Lair. 
Mr. Dumont d’Urville, (Jules Sebastian-Cesar,) captain of a frigate, born the 
2lst of May 1790, at Condé-sur-Noireau, (Calvados,) prosecuted his studies at 
-Caén. From his childhood he shewed a decided taste for sea voyages. He read 
with avidity all the narratives connected with them, and with peculiar interest 
those of Cook and Bougainville, those great navigators who were one day to be 
his models. The excellent education which he received, rendered him capable of 
distinguishing himself in whatever career he should follow. Having decided for 
the navy, he soon made himself remarked by his intelligence and his instruction. 
In 1819 and 1820, he accompanied Captain Gautier in the survey of the coasts 
of the Grecian Archipelago and of the Black Sea, one of the most remarkable la- 
bours that has been undertaken by the French marine. Mr. Verneur hastened 
to insert, in the 9th volume of the “ Journal des Voyages,”’ Mr. d’Urville’s ac- 
count of this hydrographical campaign, and the Academy of Sciences heard with 
great interest a report of the observations which he had made on Natural History. 
He had followed some courses of Botany and Entomology at Toulon. These 
studies, to which he had only devoted his leisure hours, were subsequently of 
great advantage to him. 
Mr. d’Urville composed a Latin flora of the Greek Archipelago and the shores 
of the Black Sea. He also gave a detailed account of the subterranean galleries 
in the island of Milo. The observations which he made on these excavations 
are new and curious. He thinks that they served for Pagan worship, and that 
they were the miniature representations of the famous labyrinths of Crete, of E- 
gypt, and of Lemnos. 
it was during his stay at Milo, that he had the good fortune to discover and 
mention to Mr. de Riviere, then French ambassador at Constantinople, the Ve- 
nus, which a peasant of that island had just found in digging his field. This 
chef d’ceuvre of sculptura, the object of artists’ admiration, is now in the museum 
of the Louvre; but by a too common injustice, easy this time to be amended, the 
name of Mr. de Riviere, ambassador, and that of Mr. Marcellus, secretary of the 
embassy, alone inscribed at the base of the statute, have been signalized to public 
gratitude, while that of Mr. d’Urville has remained in oblivion. 
Scarcely had he returned than he projected another journey conjointly with M. 
Duperrey. This voyage round the world lasted thirty-one months, during which 
the Coquille journeyed 25,000 leagues, visiting the Malowin islands, the coasts 
of Chili and Peru, the dangerous Archipelago, and many other groups scattered 
over the vast extent of the Pacific Ocean; New Ireland, the Molluccas, New 
Holland and New Zealand ; the Archipelago of the Caroline islands, Java, the 
isles of France and of Bourbon. 
Mr, d’Urville, second in command of the frigate, learnt to reconcile the duties 
of his rank with scientific researches. He had taken under his charge the bota- 
nical and entomological parts: the herbarium which he brought heme contains 
more than 3000 species, of which there are 400 new. He enriched the Museum 
of Natural History of Paris with nearly 1200 insects, constituting about 1100 
species, of which 450 were wanting in the cabinet, and 300 were unpublished. 
Mr. d’Urville has written different floras: those of Taiti, of Oualan, and of the 
Malouin isles ; the last is already published. From the report of Mr. Mirbel to the 
