POLAR EXPEDITIONS.
Bellinghausen, yet another Russian explorer--Discovery of the islands
of Traversay, Peter I., and Alexander I.--The whaler, Weddell--The
Southern Orkneys--New Shetland--The people of Tierra del Fuego--John
Biscoe and the districts of Enderby and Graham--Charles Wilkes and the
Antarctic Continent--Captain Balleny--Dumont d'Urville's expedition in
the _Astrolabe_ and the _Zelee_--Coupvent Desbois and the Peak of
Teneriffe--The Straits of Magellan--A new post-office shut in by ice--
Louis Philippe's Land--Across Oceania--Adelie and Clarie Lands--New
Guinea and Torres Strait--Return to France--James Clark Rosset--
Victoria.
We have already had occasion to speak of the Antarctic regions, and the
explorations made there in the seventeenth, and at the end of the
eighteenth century, by various navigators, nearly all Frenchmen,
amongst whom we must specially note La Roche, discoverer of New
Georgia, in 1675, Bouvet, Kerguelen, Marion, and Crozet. The name of
Antarctic is given to all the islands scattered about the ocean which
are called after navigators, as well as those of Prince Edward, the
Sandwich group, New Georgia, &c.
It was in these latitudes that William Smith, commander of the brig
_William_, trading between Monte Video and Valparaiso, discovered, in
1818, the Southern Shetland Islands, arid and barren districts covered
with snow, on which, however, collected vast herds of seals, animals of
which the skins are used as furs, and which had not before been met
with in the Southern Seas. The news of this discovery led to a rush of
whaling-vessels to the new hunting-grounds, and between 1821 and 1822
the number of seals captured in this archipelago is estimated at
32,000, whilst the quantity of sea-elephant oil obtained during the
same time may be put down at 940 tons. As males and females were
indiscriminately slaughtered, however, the new fields were soon
exhausted. The survey of the twelve principal islands, and of the
innumerable and all but barren rocks, making up this archipelago,
occupied but a short time.
[Illustration: Hunting sea-elephants.]
Two years later Botwell discovered the Southern Orkneys, and then
Palmer and other whalemen sighted, or thought they sighted, districts
to which they gave the names of Palmer and Trinity.
More important discoveries were, however, to be made in these
hyberborean regions, and the hypothesis of Dalrymple, Buffon, and other
scholars of the eighteenth century, as to the existence of a southern
continent, forming, so to speak, a counterpoise to the North Pole, was
to be unexpectedly confirmed by the work of these intrepid explorers.
The navy of Russia had now for some years been rapidly gaining in
importance, and had played no insignificant part in scientific
research. We have related the interesting voyages of most Russian
circumnavigators; but we have still to speak of Bellinghausen's voyage
round the world, which occupies a prominent place in the history of the
exploration of the Antarctic seas.
The _Vostok_, Captain Bellinghausen, and the _Mirni_, commanded by
Lieutenant Lazarew, left Cronstadt on the 3rd July, 1819, _en route_
for the Antarctic Ocean. On the 15th December Southern Georgia was
sighted, and seven days later an island was discovered in the
south-east, to which the name of Traversay was given, and the position
of which was fixed at 52 degrees 15 minutes S. lat., and 27 degrees 21
minutes W. long., reckoning from the Paris meridian.
Continuing their easterly course in S. lat. 60 degrees for 400 miles as
far as W. long. 187 degrees, the explorers then bore south to S. lat.
70 degrees, where their further progress was arrested by a barrier of
ice.
Bellinghausen, nothing daunted, tried to cut his way eastwards into the
heart of the Polar Circle, but at 44 degrees E. long, he was compelled
to return northwards. After a voyage of forty miles a large country
hove in sight, which a whaler was to discover twelve years later when
the ice had broken up.
Back again in S. lat. 62 degrees, Bellinghausen once more steered
eastwards without encountering any obstacles, and on the 5th March,
1820, he made for Port Jackson to repair his vessels.
The whole summer was given up by the Russian navigator to a cruise
about Oceania, when he discovered no less than seventeen new islands,
and on the 31st October he left Port Jackson on a new expedition. The
first places sighted on this trip were the Macquarie Islands; then
cutting across the 60th parallel, S. lat. in E. long. 160 degrees, the
explorers bore east between S. lat. 64 degrees and 68 degrees as far as
W. long. 95 degrees. On the 9th January, Bellinghausen reached 70
degrees S. lat., and the next day discovered, in S. lat. 69 degrees 30
minutes, W. long. 92 degrees 20 minutes, an island, to which he gave
the name of Peter I., the most southerly land hitherto visited. Then
fifteen degrees further east, and in all but the same latitude, he
sighted some more land which he called Alexander I.'s Land. Scarcely
200 miles distant from Graham's Land, it appeared likely to be
connected with it, for the sea between the two districts was constantly
discoloured, and many other facts pointed to the same conclusion.
From Alexander I.'s Land the two vessels, bearing due north, and
passing Graham's Land, made for New Georgia, arriving there in
February. Thence they returned to Cronstadt, the port of which they
entered in July 1821, exactly two years after they left it, having lost
only three men out of a crew of 200.
We would gladly have given further details of this interesting
expedition, but we have not been able to obtain a sight of the original
account published in Russian at St. Petersburg, and we have had to be
content with the _resume_ brought out in one of the journals of the
Geographical Society in 1839.
[Illustration: Map of the Antarctic Regions, showing the routes taken
by the navigators of the 19th Century. _Engraved by E. Morieu._]
At the same period a master in the Royal Navy, James Weddell by name,
was appointed by an Edinburgh firm to the command of an expedition, to
obtain seal-skins in the southern seas, where two years were to be
spent. This expedition consisted of the brig _Jane_, 160 tons, Captain
Weddell, and the cutter _Beaufort_, sixty-five tons, Matthew Brisbane
commander.
The two vessels left England on the 17th September, 1822, touched at
Bonavista, one of the Cape Verd Islands, and cast anchor in the
following December in the port of St. Helena, on the eastern coast of
Patagonia, where some valuable observations were taken on the position
of that town.
Weddell put to sea again on the 27th December, and steering in a
south-easterly direction, came in sight, on the 12th January, of an
archipelago to which he gave the name of the Southern Orkneys. These
islands are situated in S. lat. 60 degrees 45 minutes, and W. long. 45
degrees.
According to the navigator, this little group presents an even more
forbidding appearance than New Shetland. On every side rise the sharp
points of rocks, bare of vegetation, round which surge the restless
waves, and against which dash enormous floating icebergs, with a noise
like thunder. Vessels are in perpetual danger in these latitudes, and
the eleven days passed under sail by Weddell in surveying minutely the
islands, islets, and rocks of this archipelago, were a time of
ceaseless exertion for the crew, who were throughout in constant danger
of their lives.
Specimens of the principal strata of these islands were collected, and
on the return home put into the hands of Professor Jameson, of
Edinburgh, who identified them as belonging to primary and volcanic
rocks.
Weddell now made for the south, crossed the Antarctic Circle in W.
long. 30 degrees, and soon came in sight of numerous ice islands.
Beyond S. lat. 70 degrees, these floes decreased in number, and finally
disappeared; the weather moderated, innumerable flocks of birds hovered
above the ships, whilst large schools of whales played in its wake.
This strange and unexpected change in the temperature surprised every
one, especially as it became more marked as the South Pole was more
nearly approached. Everything pointed to the existence of a continent
not far off. Nothing was, however, discovered.
On the 20th February the vessels were in S. lat. 74 degrees 15 minutes
and W. long. 34 degrees 16 minutes 45 seconds.
"I would willingly," says Weddell, "have explored the south-west
quarter, but taking into consideration the lateness of the season, and
that we had to pass homeward through 1000 miles of sea strewed with ice
islands, with long nights, and probably attended with fogs, I could not
determine otherwise than to take advantage of this favourable wind for
returning."
Having seen no sign of land in this direction, and a strong southerly
wind blowing at the time, Weddell retraced his course as far as S. lat.
58 degrees, and steered in an easterly direction to within 100 miles of
the Sandwich Islands. On the 7th February he once more doubled the
southern cape, sailed by a sheet of ice fifty miles wide, and on the
20th February reached S. lat. 74 degrees 15 minutes. From the top of
the masts nothing was to be seen but an open sea with a few floating
ice-islands.
Unexpected results had ensued from these trips in a southerly
direction. Weddell had penetrated 240 miles nearer the Pole than any of
his predecessors, including Cook. He gave the name of George IV. to
that part of the Antarctic Ocean which he had explored. Strange and
significant was the fact that the ice had decreased in quantity as the
South Pole was approached, whilst fogs and storms were incessant, and
the atmosphere was always heavily charged with moisture, and the
temperature of surprising mildness.
Another valuable observation made, was that the vibrations of the
compass were as slow in these southern latitudes as Parry had noted
them to be in the Arctic regions.
Weddell's two vessels, separated in a storm, met again in New Georgia
after a perilous voyage of 1200 miles amongst the ice. New Georgia,
discovered by La Roche in 1675, and visited in 1756 by the _Lion_, was
really little known until after Captain Cook's exploration of it, but
his account of the number of seals and walruses frequenting it had led
to being much favoured by whalers, chiefly English and American, who
took the skins of their victims to China and sold them at a guinea or
thirty shillings each.
"The island," says Weddell, speaking of South Georgia, "is about
ninety-six miles long, and its mean breadth about ten. It is so
indented with bays, that in several places, where they are on opposite
sides, they are so deep as to make the distance from one side to the
other very small. The tops of the mountains are lofty, and perpetually
covered with snow; but in the valleys, during the summer season,
vegetation is rather abundant. Almost the only natural production of
the soil is a strong-bladed grass, the length of which is in general
about two feet; it grows in tufts on mounds three or four feet from the
ground. No land quadrupeds are found here; birds and amphibious animals
are the only inhabitants."
Here congregate numerous flocks of penguins, which stalk about on the
beach, head in air. To quote an early navigator, Sir John Nasborough,
they look like children in white aprons. Numerous albatrosses are also
met with here, some of them measuring seventeen feet from tip to tip of
their wings. When these birds are stripped of their plumage their
weight is reduced one-half.
[Illustration: "Here congregate flocks of penguins."]
Weddell also visited New Shetland, and ascertained that Bridgeman
Island, in that group, is an active volcano. He could not land, as all
the harbours were blocked up with ice, and he was obliged to make for
Tierra del Fuego.
During a stay of two months here, Weddell collected some valuable
information on the advantages of this coast to navigators, and obtained
some accurate data as to the character of the inhabitants. In the
interior of Tierra del Fuego rose a few mountains, always covered with
snow, the loftiest of which were not more than 3000 feet high. Weddell
was unable to identify the volcano noticed by other travellers,
including Basil Hall in 1822, but he picked up a good deal of lava
which had probably come from it. There was, moreover, no doubt of its
existence, for the explorer under notice had seen on his previous
voyage signs of a volcanic eruption in the extreme redness of the sky
above Tierra del Fuego.
Hitherto there had been a good deal of divergence in the opinion of
explorers as to the temperature of Tierra del Fuego. Weddell attributes
this to the different seasons of their visits, and the variability of
the winds. When he was there and the wind was in the south the
thermometer was never more than two or three degrees above zero,
whereas when the wind came from the north it was as hot as July in
England. According to Weddell dogs and otters are the only quadrupeds
of the country.
The relations with the natives were cordial throughout the explorer's
stay amongst them. At first they gathered about the ship without
venturing to climb on to it, and the scenes enacted on the passage of
the first European vessel through the states were repeated in spite of
the long period which had since elapsed. Of the bread, madeira, and
beef offered to them, the natives would taste nothing but the meat; and
of the many objects shown to them, they liked pieces of iron and
looking-glasses best, amusing themselves with making grimaces in the
latter of such absurdity as to keep the crew in fits of laughter. Their
general appearance, too, was very provocative of mirth. Their jet black
complexions, blue feathers, and faces streaked with parallel red and
white lines, like tick, made up a whole of the greatest absurdity, and
many were the hearty laughs the English enjoyed at their expense.
Presently disgusted at receiving nothing more than the iron hoops of
casks from people possessed of such wealth, they proceeded to annex all
they could lay hands on. These thefts were soon detected and put a stop
to, but they gave rise to many an amusing scene, and proved the
wonderful imitative powers of the natives.
"A sailor had given a Fuegan," says Weddell, "a tin-pot full of coffee,
which he drank, and was using all his art to steal the pot. The sailor,
however, recollecting after awhile that the pot had not been returned,
applied for it, but whatever words he made use of were always repeated
in imitation by the Fuegan. At length he became enraged at hearing his
requests reiterated, and, placing himself in a threatening attitude, in
an angry tone, he said, 'You copper-coloured rascal, where is my
tin-pot?' The Fuegan, assuming the same attitude, with his eyes fixed
on the sailor, called out, 'You copper-coloured rascal, where is my
tin-pot?' The imitation was so perfect that every one laughed, except
the sailor, who proceeded to search him, and under his arm he found the
article missing."
The sterile mountainous districts in this rigorous climate of Tierra
del Fuego furnish no animal fit for food, and without proper clothing
or nourishment the people are reduced to a state of complete barbarism.
Hunting yields them hardly any game, fishing is almost equally
unproductive of results; they are obliged to depend upon the storms
which now and then fling some huge cetacean on their shores, and upon
such salvage they fall tooth and nail, not even taking the trouble to
cook the flesh.
In 1828 Henry Foster, commanding the _Chanticleer_, received
instructions to make observations on the pendulum, with a view to
determining the figure of the earth. This expedition extended over
three years, and was then--i.e. in 1831--brought to an end by his
violent death by drowning in the river Chagres. We allude to this trip
because it resulted, on the 5th January, 1829, in the identification
and exploration of the Southern Shetlands. The commander himself
succeeded in landing, though with great difficulty, on one of these
islands, where he collected some specimens of the syenite of which the
soil is composed, and a small quantity of red snow, in every respect
similar to that found by explorers in the Arctic regions.
Of far greater interest, however, was the survey made in 1830 by the
whaler John Biscoe. The brig _Tula_, 140 tons, and the cutter _Lively_,
left London under his orders on the 14th July, 1830. These two vessels,
the property of Messrs. Enderby, were fitted up for whale-fishing, and
were in every respect well qualified for the long and arduous task
before them, which, according to Biscoe's instructions, was to combine
discovery in the Antarctic seas with whaling.
After touching at the Falklands, the ships started on the 27th November
on a vain search for the Aurora Islands, after which they made for the
Sandwich group, doubling its most southerly cape on the 1st January,
1831.
In 59 degrees S. lat. masses of ice were encountered, compelling the
explorers to give up the south-western route, in which direction they
had noted signs of the existence of land. It was therefore necessary to
bear east, skirting along the ice as far as W. long. 9 degrees 34
minutes. It was only on the 16th January that Biscoe was able to cross
the 60th parallel of S. lat. In 1775 Cook had here come to a space of
open sea 250 miles in extent, yet now an insurmountable barrier of ice
checked Biscoe's advance.
Continuing his south-westerly course as far as 68 degrees 51 minutes
and 10 degrees E. long., the explorer was struck by the discoloration
of the water, the presence of several eaglets and cape-pigeons, and the
fact that the wind now blew from the south-south-west, all sure tokens
of a large continent being near. Ice, however, again barred his
progress southwards, and he had to go on in an easterly direction
approaching nearer and nearer to the Antarctic Circle.
"At length, on the 27th February," says Desborough Cooley, "in S. lat.
65 degrees 57 minutes and E. long. 47 degrees 20 minutes land was
distinctly seen." This land was of considerable extent, mountainous and
covered with snow. Biscoe named it Enderby, and made the most strenuous
efforts to reach it, but it was so completely surrounded with ice that
he could not succeed. Whilst these attempts were being made a gale of
wind separated the two vessels and drove them in a south-easterly
direction, the land remaining in sight, and stretching away from east
to west for an extent of more than 200 miles. Bad weather, and the
deplorable state of the health of the crew, compelled Biscoe to make
for Van Diemen's Land, where he was not rejoined by the _Lively_ until
some months later.
The explorers had several opportunities of observing the aurora
australis, to quote from Biscoe's narrative, or rather the account of
his trip drawn up from his log-book, and published in the journal of
the Royal Geographical Society. "Extraordinarily vivid coruscations of
aurora australis (were seen), at times rolling," says Captain Biscoe,
"as it were, over our heads in the form of beautiful columns, then as
suddenly changing like the fringe of a curtain, and again shooting
across the hemisphere like a serpent; frequently appearing not many
yards above our heads, and decidedly within our atmosphere."
Leaving Van Diemen's Land on the 11th January, 1832, Biscoe and his two
vessels resumed their voyage in a south-easterly direction. The
constant presence of floating sea-weed, and the number of birds of a
kind which never venture far from land, with the gathering of low and
heavy clouds made Biscoe think he was on the eve of some discovery, but
storms prevented the completion of his explorations. At last, on the
12th February, in S. lat. 64 degrees 10 minutes albatrosses, penguins,
and whales were seen in large quantities; and on the 15th land was seen
in the south a long distance off. The next day this land was
ascertained to be a large island, to which the name of Adelaide was
given, in honour of the Queen of England. On this island were a number
of mountains of conical form with the base very large.
In the ensuing days it was ascertained that this was no solitary
island, but one of a chain of islets forming so to speak the outworks
of a lofty continent. This continent, stretching away for 250 miles in
an E.N.E. and W.S.W. direction, was called Graham, whilst the name of
Biscoe was given to the islets in honour of their discoverer. There was
no trace either of plants or animals in this country.
To make quite sure of the nature of his discovery, Biscoe landed on the
21st February, on Graham's Land, and determined the position of a lofty
mountain, to which he gave the name of William, in S. lat. 64 degrees
45 minutes and W. long. 66 degrees 11 minutes, reckoning from the Paris
meridian.
To quote from the journal of the Royal Geographical Society,--"The
place was in a deep bay, in which the water was so still that could any
seals have been found the vessels could have been easily loaded, as
they might have been laid alongside the rocks for the purpose. The
depth of the water was also considerable, no bottom being found with
twenty fathoms of line almost close to the beach; and the sun was so
warm that the snow was melted off all the rocks along the water-line,
which made it more extraordinary that they should be so utterly
deserted."
From Graham's Land, Biscoe made for the Southern Shetlands, with which
it seemed possible the former might be connected, and after touching at
the Falkland Islands, where he lost sight of the _Lively_, he returned
to England.
As a reward for all he had done, and as an encouragement for the
future, Biscoe received medals both from the English and French
Geographical Societies.
Very animated were the discussions which now took place as to the
existence of a southern continent, and the possibility of penetrating
beyond the barrier of ice shutting in the adjacent islands. Three
powers simultaneously resolved to send out an expedition. France
entrusted the command of hers to Dumont d'Urville; England chose James
Ross; and the United States, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes.
The last named found himself at the head of a small fleet, consisting
of the _Porpoise_, two sloops, the _Vincennes_ and the _Peacock_; two
schooners, the _Sea-Gull_ and the _Flying-Fish_; and a transport ship,
the _Relief_, which was sent on in advance to Rio with a reserve of
provisions, whilst the others touched at Madeira, and the Cape Verd
Islands.
From the 24th November, 1838, to the 6th January, 1839, the squadron
remained in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, whence it sailed to the Rio
Negro, not arriving at Port Orange, Tierra del Fuego, until the 19th
February, 1839.
There the expedition divided, the _Peacock_ and _Flying-Fish_ making
for the point were Cook crossed S. lat. 60 degrees, and the _Relief_,
with the naturalists on board, penetrating into the Straits of
Magellan, by one of the passages south-east of Tierra del Fuego; whilst
the _Vincennes_ remained at Port Orange; and the _Sea-Gull_ and
_Porpoise_ started on the 24th February for the Southern Seas. Wilkes
surveyed Palmer's Land for a distance of thirty miles to the point
where it turns in a S.S.E. direction, which he called Cape Hope; he
then visited the Shetlands and verified the position of several of the
islands in that group.
After passing thirty-six days in these inhospitable regions the two
vessels steered northwards. A voyage marked by few incidents worthy of
record brought Wilkes to Callao, but he had lost sight of the
_Sea-Gull_. The commander now visited the Paumatou group, Otaheite, the
Society and Navigator's Islands, and cast anchor off Sydney on the 28th
November.
On the 29th December, 1839, the expedition once more put to sea, and
steered for the south, with a view to reaching the most southerly
latitude between E. long 160 degrees and 145 degrees (reckoning from
Greenwich), bearing east by west. The vessels were at liberty to follow
out separate courses, a rendezvous being fixed in case of their losing
sight of each other. Up to January 22nd numerous signs of land were
seen, and some officers even thought they had actually caught sight of
it, but it turned out, when the various accounts were compared at the
trial Wilkes had to undergo on his return, that it was merely through
the accidental deviation before the 22nd January of the _Vincennes_, in
a northerly direction, that the English explorers ascertained the
existence of land. Not until he reached Sydney did Wilkes, hearing that
D'Urville had discovered land on the 19th January, pretend to have seen
it on the same day.
[Illustration: Dumont d'Urville.]
These facts are established in a very conclusive article published by
the hydrographer Daussy in the _Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie_.
Further on we shall see that d'Urville actually landed on the new
continent, so that the honour of being the first to discover it is
undoubtedly his.
The _Peacock_ and _Flying-Fish_, either because they had sustained
damages or because of the dangers from the roughness of the sea and
floating ice, had steered in a northerly direction from the 24th
January to the 5th February, The _Vincennes_ and _Porpoise_ alone
continued the arduous voyage as far as E. long. 97 degrees, having land
in sight for two or three miles, which they approached whenever the ice
allowed them to do so.
"On the 29th of January," says Wilkes, in his report to the National
Institution of Washington, "we entered what I have called Piners Bay,
the only place where we could have landed on the naked rocks. We were
driven out of it by one of the sudden gales usual in those seas. We got
soundings in thirty fathoms. The gale lasted thirty-six hours, and
after many narrow escapes, I found myself some sixty miles W. to
leeward of this bay. It now became probable that this land which we had
discovered was of great extent, and I deemed it of more importance to
follow its trend than to return to Piners Bay to land, not doubting I
should have an opportunity of landing on some portion of it still more
accessible; this, however, I was disappointed in, the icy barrier
preventing our approach, and rendering it impossible to effect.
"Great quantities of ice, covered with mud, rock, and stone, presented
themselves at the edge of the barrier, in close proximity of the land;
from these our specimens were obtained, and were quite as numerous as
could have been gathered from the rocks themselves. The land, covered
with snow, was distinctly seen in many places, and between them such
appearances as to leave little or no doubt in my mind of it being a
continuous line of coast, and deserving the name bestowed upon it of
the _Antarctic Continent_, lying as it does under that circle. Many
phenomena were observed here, and observations made, which will be
found under their appropriate head in the sequel.
"On reaching 97 degrees east, we found the ice trending to the
northward and continuing to follow it close, we reached to within a few
miles of the position where Cook was stopped by the barrier in 1773."
Piners Bay, where Wilkes landed, is situated in E. long. 140 degrees
(reckoning from Paris), that is to say it is identical with the place
visited by D'Urville on the 21st January. On the 30th January the
_Porpoise_ had come in sight of D'Urville's two vessels, and approached
to within speaking distance of them, but they put on all sail and
appeared anxious to avoid any communication.
On his arrival at Sydney, Wilkes found the _Peacock_ in a state of
repair and with that vessel he visited New Zealand, Tonga Tabou, and
the Fiji Islands, where two of the junior officers of the expedition
were massacred by the natives. The Friendly, Navigator, and Sandwich
Islands, Admiralty Straits, Puget Sound, Vancouver's Island, the
Ladrones, Manilla, Sooloo, Singapore, the Sunda Islands, St. Helena,
and Rio de Janeiro, were the halting places on the return voyage, which
terminated on the 9th June, 1842, at New York, the explorers having
been absent three years and ten months altogether.
The results to every branch of science were considerable, and the young
republic of the United States was to be congratulated on a debut so
triumphant in the career of discovery. In spite, however, of the
interest attaching to the account of this expedition, and to the
special treatises by Dana, Gould, Pickering, Gray, Cassin, and
Brackenbridge, we are obliged to refrain from dwelling on the work done
in countries already known. The success of these publications beyond
the Atlantic was, as might be expected in a country boasting of so few
explorers, immense.
Whilst Wilkes was engaged in his explorations, i.e. in 1839, Balleny,
captain of the _Elizabeth Scott_, was adding his quota to the survey of
the Antarctic regions. Starting from Campbell Island, on the south of
New Zealand, he arrived on the 7th February in S. lat. 67 degrees 7
minutes, and W. long. 164 degrees 25 minutes, reckoning from the Paris
meridian. Then bearing west and noting many indications of the
neighbourhood of land, he discovered two days later a black band in the
south-west which, at six o'clock in the evening, he ascertained beyond
a doubt to be land. This land turned out to be three islands of
considerable size, and Balleny gave them his own name. As may be
imagined the captain tried to land, but a barrier of ice prevented his
doing so. All he could manage was the determination of the position of
the central isle, which he fixed at S. lat. 66 degrees 44 minutes and
W. long. 162 degrees 25 minutes.
On the 14th February a lofty land, covered with snow, was sighted in
the W.S.W. The next day there were but ten miles between the vessel and
the land. It was approached as nearly as possible, and then a boat was
put off, but a beach of only three or four feet wide with vertical and
inaccessible cliffs rising beyond it rendered landing impossible, and
only by getting wet up to their waists were the sailors able to obtain
a few specimens of the lava characteristic of this volcanic district.
[Illustration: "Only by getting wet up to their waists."]
Yet once more, on the 2nd March in S. lat. 65 degrees and about W.
long. 120 degrees 24 minutes, land was seen from the deck of the
_Elizabeth Scott_. The vessel was brought to for the night, and the
next day an attempt was made to steer in a south-west direction, but it
was impossible to get through the ice barrier. Naming the new discovery
Sabrina, Balleny resumed his northerly route without being able further
to verify his discoveries.
In 1837, just as Wilkes had started on his expedition, Captain Dumont
d'Urville proposed to the Minister of Marine a new scheme for a voyage
round the world. The services rendered by him in 1819-21 in a
hydrographic expedition, in 1822 and 1825 on the _Coquille_, under
Captain Duperrey, and lastly in 1826-29 on the _Astrolabe_, had given
him an amount of experience which justified him in submitting his
peculiar views to the government, and to supplement so to speak the
mass of information collected by himself and others in these little
known latitudes.
The minister at once accepted D'Urville's offer, and exerted himself to
find for him enlightened and trustworthy fellow-workers. Two corvettes,
the _Astrolabe_ and the _Zelee_, fitted up with everything which French
experience had proved to be necessary, were placed at his disposal, and
amongst his colleagues were many who were subsequently to rise to the
rank of general officers, including Jacquinot, commander of the
_Zelee_, Coupvent Desbois, Du Bouzet, Tardy de Montravel, and Perigot,
all well-known names to those interested in the history of the French
navy.
The instructions given by Vice-Admiral Rosamel to D'Urville differed
from those of his predecessors chiefly in his being ordered to
penetrate as near as the ice would permit to the South Pole. He was
also ordered to complete the great work he had begun in 1827 on the
Viti Islands, to survey the Salomon archipelago, to visit the Swan
river of Australia, New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, that part of the
Caroline group surveyed by Lutke, Mindanao, Borneo, and Batavia, whence
he was to return to France _via_ the Cape of Good Hope.
These instructions concluded in terms proving the exalted ideas of the
government. "His Majesty," said Admiral de Rosamel, "not only
contemplates the progress of hydrography and natural science; but his
royal solicitude for the interests of French commerce and the
development of the French navy is such as to lead him greatly to extend
the terms of your commission and to hope for great results from it. You
will visit numerous places, the resources of which you must study with
a view to the interests of our whaling-ships, collecting all
information likely to be of service to them alike in facilitating their
voyages and rendering those voyages as remunerative as possible. You
will touch at those ports where commercial relations with us are
already opened, and where the visit of a state vessel will have
salutary effects, and at others hitherto closed to our produce and
about which you may on your return give us some valuable details."
In addition to the personal good wishes of Louis Philippe, D'Urville
received many marks of the most lively interest taken in his work by
the _Academie des Sciences morales_ and the Geographical Society, but
not unfortunately from the _Academie des Sciences_, although he had for
twenty years been working hard to increase the riches of the Museum of
Natural History.
"Whether from prejudice or from whatever cause," says D'Urville, "they
(the members of the _Academie des Sciences_) showed very little
enthusiasm for the contemplated expedition and their instructions to me
were as formal as they would have been to a complete stranger."
It is matter of regret that the celebrated Arago, the declared enemy of
Polar researches, was one of the bitterest opponents of the new
expedition. This was not, however, the case with various scholars of
other nationalities, such as Humboldt and Kruzenstern, who wrote to
congratulate D'Urville on his approaching voyage and on the important
results to science which might be hoped for.
After numerous delays, resulting from the fitting up of two vessels
which were to take the Prince de Joinville to Brazil, the _Astrolabe_
and _Zelee_ at last left Toulon on the 7th September, 1837. The last
day of the same month they cast anchor off Santa Cruz de Teneriffe
which D'Urville chose as a halting-place in preference to one of the
Cape Verd Islands, in the hope of laying in a stock of wine and also of
being able to take some magnetic observations which he had been blamed
for neglecting in 1826, although it was well known that he was not then
in a fit state to attend to such things.
In spite of the eagerness of the young officers to go and enjoy
themselves on shore they had to submit to a quarantine of four days, on
account of rumours of cases of plague having occurred in the lazaretto
of Marseilles. Without pausing to relate the details of Messrs. Du
Bouzet, Coupvent, and Dumoulin's ascent of the Peak, we will merely
quote a few enthusiastic remarks of Coupvent Desbois:--
"Arrived," says that officer, "at the foot of the peak, we spent the
last hour of the ascent in crossing cinders and broken stones, arriving
at last at the longed-for goal, the loftiest point of this huge
volcano. The smoking crater presented the appearance of a hollow
sulphurous semi-circle about 1200 feet wide and 300 feet deep, covered
with the debris of pumice and other stones. The thermometer, which had
marked five degrees at ten a.m., got broken through being placed on the
ground where there was an escape of sulphuric vapour. There are upon
the sides and in the crater numerous fumerolles which send forth the
native sulphur, which forms the base of the peak. The rush of the
vapour is so rapid as to sound like shots from a cannon.
"The heat of the ground is so great in some parts that it is impossible
to stand on it for a minute at a time. Look around you and see if these
three mountains piled one upon the other do not resemble a staircase
built up by giants, on which to climb to heaven. Gaze upon the vast
streams of lava, all issuing from one point which form the crater, and
which a few centuries back you could not have trodden upon with
impunity. See the Canaries in the distance, look down, ye pigmies, on
the sea, with its breakers dashing against the shores of the island, of
which you for the moment form the summit!... See for once, as God sees,
and be rewarded for your exertions, ye travellers, whose enthusiasm for
the grand scenes of nature has brought you some 12,182 feet above the
level of the ocean."
We must add that the explorers testified to the brilliancy of the
stars, as seen from the summit of the peak, the clearness of all
sounds, and also to the giddiness and headache known as mountain
sickness. Whilst part of the staff were engaged in this scientific
excursion, several other officers visited the town, where they noticed
nothing special except a narrow walk called the Alameda, and the church
of the Franciscans. The neighbourhood, however, is interesting enough
on account of the curious aqueducts for supplying the town with water,
and the Mercede forest which, in D'Urville's opinion, might more justly
be called a coppice, for it contains nothing but shrubs and ferns. The
population seemed happy, but extremely lazy; economical, but horribly
dirty; and the less said about their morals the better.
On the 12th October the two vessels put to sea again, intending to
reach the Polar regions as soon as possible. Motives of humanity,
however, determined D'Urville to change his plans and touch at Rio, the
state of an apprentice with disease of the lungs becoming so rapidly
worse that a stay in the Arctic regions would probably have been fatal.
The vessels cast anchor in the roadstead, not the Bay of Rio, on the
13th November, but they only remained there one day, that is to say,
just long enough to land young Dupare, and to lay in a stock of
provisions. The southerly route was then resumed.
For a long time D'Urville had wished to explore the Strait of Magellan,
not with a view to further hydrographical surveys, for the careful
explorations of Captain King, begun in 1826, had been finished in 1834
by Fitzroy, leaving little to be done in that direction, but to gather
the rich and still unappropriated harvest of facts relating to natural
history. How intensely interesting it was, too, to note how real had
been the dangers encountered by early navigators, such as the sudden
veering of the wind, &c. What a good thing it would be to obtain
further and more detailed information about the famous Patagonians, the
subject of so many fables and controversies. Yet another motive led
D'Urville to anchor off Port Famine, rather than off Staten Island. His
perusal of the accounts of the work of explorers who had penetrated
into the Southern Seas convinced him that the end of January and the
whole of February were the best times for visiting these regions, for
then only are the effects of the annual thaw over, and with them the
risk of over-fatigue to the crews.
[Illustration: Anchorage off Port Famine.]
This resolution once taken, D'Urville communicated it to Captain
Jacquinot, and set sail for the strait. On the 12th December Cape
Virgin was sighted, and Dumoulin, seconded by the young officers, began
a grand series of hydrographical surveys. In the intricate navigation
of the strait, D'Urville, we are told, showed equal courage and
calmness, skill and presence of mind, completely winning over to his
side many of the sailors, who, when they had seen him going along at
Toulon when suffering with the gout, had exclaimed, "Oh, that old
fellow won't take us far!" Now, when his constant vigilance had brought
the vessels safely out of the strait, the cry was, "The ---- man is
mad! He's made us scrape against rocks, reefs, and land, as if he had
never taken a voyage before! And we used to think him as useless as a
rotten keel!"
We must now say a few words on the stay at Port Famine.
Landing is easy, and there is a good spring and plenty of wood; on the
rocks are found quantities of mussels, limpets, and whelks, whilst
inland grows celery, and a kind of herb resembling the dandelion.
Another fruitful source of wealth in this bay is fish, and whilst the
vessels were at anchor, drag-nets, trammels, and lines captured enough
mullet, gudgeon, and roaches to feed the whole crew.
"As I was about to re-embark," says D'Urville, "a little barrel was
brought to me which had been found hung on a tree on the beach, near a
post on which was written _Post Office_. Having ascertained that this
barrel contained papers, I took it on board and examined them. They
consisted of notes of captains who had passed through the Straits of
Magellan, stating the time of their visits, the incidents of their
passage, with advice to those who should come after them, and letters
for Europe or the United States. It seemed that an American captain,
Cunningham by name, had been the originator of this open-air
post-office. He had merely, in April, 1833, hung a bottle on a tree,
and his fellow-countryman, Waterhouse, had supplemented it by the post
with its inscription. Lastly, Captain Carrick of the schooner _Mary
Ann_, from Liverpool, passed through the strait in March 1837, on his
way to San Blas, California, going through it again a second time on
his way back on the 29th November, 1837, that is to say, sixteen days
before our own visit, and he it was who had substituted the barrel for
the bottle, adding an invitation to all who should succeed him to use
it as the receptacle of letters for different destinations. I mean to
improve this ingenious and useful contrivance by forming an actual
post-office on the highest point of the peninsula with an inscription
in letters of a size so gigantic as to compel the attention of
navigators who would not otherwise have touched at Port Famine.
Curiosity will then probably lead them to send a canoe to examine the
box, which will be fastened to the post. It seems likely that we shall
ourselves reap the first fruits of this arrangement, and our families
will be agreeably surprised to receive news from us from this wild and
lonely district, just before our plunge into the ice of the Polar
regions."
At low tide the mouth of the Sedger river, which flows into Famine Bay,
is encumbered with sand-banks; some 1000 feet further on the plain is
transformed into a vast marsh, from which rise the trunks of immense
trees, and huge bones, bleached by the action of time, which have been
brought down by the heavy rainfall, swelling the course of the stream.
Skirting this marsh is a fine forest, the entrance to which is
protected by prickly shrubs. The commonest trees are the beech, with
trunks between eighty and ninety feet high, and three or four in
diameter; Winteria aromatica, a kind of bark which has long since
replaced the cinnamon, and a species of Barbary. The largest beeches
seen by D'Urville measured fifteen feet in diameter, and were about 150
feet high.
Unfortunately, no mammiferous animals or reptiles, or fresh or salt
water shell-fish are found on these coasts; and one or two different
kinds of birds with a few lichens and mosses were all the naturalist
was able to obtain.
Several officers went up the Sedger in a yawl till they were stopped by
the shallowness of the water. They were then seven and a half miles
from the mouth, and they noted the width of the river where it flows
into the sea to be between ninety and a hundred feet.
"It would be difficult," says M. de Montravel, "to imagine a more
picturesque scene than was spread out before us at every turn.
Everywhere was that indescribable wildness which cannot be imitated, a
confused mass of trees, broken branches, trunks covered with moss,
which seemed literally to grow before our eyes."
To resume, the stay at Port Famine was most successful; wood and water
were easily obtained, repairs, &c., were made, horary, physical,
meteorological, tidal, and hydrographical observations were taken, and,
lastly, numerous objects of natural history were collected, the more
interesting as the museums of France hitherto contained nothing
whatever from these unknown regions beyond "a few plants collected by
Commerson and preserved in the Herbarium of M. de Jussieu."
On the 28th December, 1837, anchor was weighed without a single
Patagonian having been seen, although the officers and crew had been so
eager to make acquaintance with the natives.
The difficulties attending navigation compelled the two corvettes to
cast anchor a little further on, off Port Galant, the shores of which,
bordered by fine trees, are cut by torrents resembling a little
distance off magnificent cascades from fifty to sixty feet high. This
compulsory halt was not wasted, for a large number of new plants were
collected, and the port with the neighbouring bays were surveyed. The
commander, however, finding the season already so far advanced, gave up
his idea of going out at the westerly end of the strait, and went back
the way he came, hoping thus to get an interview with the Patagonians
before going to the Polar regions.
St. Nicholas Bay, called by Bougainville the _Baie des Francais_, where
the explorers passed New Year's Day, 1838, is a much pleasanter looking
spot than Port Galant. The usual hydrographical surveys were there
brought to a satisfactory issue by the officers under the direction of
Dumoulin. A boat was despatched to Cape Remarkable, where Bougainville
said he had seen fossil shells, which, however, turned out to be
nothing but little pebbles imbedded in a calcareous gangue.
Interesting experiments were made with the thermometrograph, or marine
thermometer, at 290 fathoms, without reaching the bottom, at less than
two miles from land. Whereas the temperature was nine degrees on the
surface, it was but two at the above-named depth, and as it is scarcely
likely that currents convey the waters of the two oceans so far down,
one is driven to the belief that this is the usual temperature of such
depths.
The vessels now made for Tierra del Fuego, where Dumoulin resumed his
surveys. Low exposed, and strewn with rocks which serve as landmarks,
there were but few dangers to be encountered here. Magdalena Island,
Gente Grande Bay, Elizabeth Island, and Oazy Harbour, where the camp of
a large party of Patagonians was made out with the telescope, and
Peckett Harbour, where the _Astrolabe_ struck in three fathoms, were
successively passed.
"As we struck," says D'Urville, "there were signs of astonishment and
even of excitement amongst the crew, and some grumbling was already
audible, when in a firm voice I ordered silence, and without appearing
at all put out by what had happened, I cried, 'This is nothing at all,
and we shall have plenty more of the same kind of thing.' Later these
words often recurred to the memory of our sailors. It is more difficult
than one would suppose for a captain to maintain perfect calmness and
impassiveness in the midst of the worst dangers, even those he has
reason to imagine likely to be fatal."
Peckett Harbour was alive with Patagonians, and officers and men were
alike eager to land. A crowd of natives on horseback were waiting for
them at the place of disembarkation.
Gentle and peaceable they readily replied to the questions put to them,
and looked quietly at everything shown to them, expressing no special
desire for anything offered to them. They did not seem either to be at
all addicted to thieving, and when on board the French vessels they
made no attempt to carry anything off.
Their usual height is from four and a half to five feet, but some are a
good deal shorter. Their limbs are large and plump without being
muscular, and their extremities are of extraordinary smallness. Their
most noteworthy characteristic is the breadth of the lower part of the
face as compared to the forehead, which is low and retreating. Long
narrow eyes, high cheek-bones, and a flat nose, give them something of
a resemblance to the Mongolian type.
They are evidently extremely languid and indolent, and wanting in
strength and agility. Looking at them squatting down, standing or
walking, with their long hair flowing down their backs, one would take
them for the women of a harem rather than savages used to enduring the
inclemency of the weather and to struggle for existence. Stretched upon
skins with their dogs and horses about them, their chief amusement is
to catch the vermin with which they swarm. They hate walking so much
that they mount horses just to go down and pick up shells on the beach
a few yards off.
A white man was living amongst these Patagonians; a miserable,
decrepit-looking fellow, who said he came from the United States, but
he spoke English very imperfectly, and the explorers took him to be a
German-Swiss. Niederhauser, so he called himself, had gone to seek his
fortune in the United States, and that fortune being long on the road,
he had given ear to the wonderful proposals of a certain whaleman, who
wanted to complete his crew. By this whaleman he was left with seven
others and some provisions on a desert island off Tierra del Fuego to
hunt seals and dress their skins. Four months later the schooner
returned laden with skins, left the seal-hunters fresh provisions, went
off again, and never came back! Whether it had been shipwrecked, or
whether the captain had abandoned his sailors, it was impossible to
ascertain. When the poor fellows found themselves deserted and their
provisions exhausted, they embarked in their canoe and rowed up the
Straits of Magellan, soon meeting with some Patagonians, with whom
Niederhauser remained, whilst his companions went on. Well received by
the natives, he lived their life with them, faring well when food was
plentiful, drawing in his belt and living on roots when food was
scarce.
Weary, however, of this miserable existence, Niederhauser entreated
D'Urville to take him on board, urging that another month of the life
he was leading would kill him. The captain consented, and received him
as a passenger.
During his three months' residence amongst them, Niederhauser had
learnt something of the language of the Patagonians, and with his aid
D'Urville drew up a comparative vocabulary of a great many words in
Patagonian, French, and German.
The war costume of the Fuegans includes a helmet of tanned leather
protected by steel-plates and surmounted by a crest of cock's feathers,
a tunic of ox-hide dyed red with yellow stripes, and a kind of
double-bladed scimitar. The chief of Peckett Harbour allowed his
visitors to take his portrait in full martial costume, thereby showing
his superiority to his subjects, who would not do the same for fear of
witchcraft.
On the 8th January anchor was finally weighed, and the second entrance
to the strait was slowly navigated against the tide. The Straits of
Magellan having now been crossed from end to end, and a survey made of
the whole of the eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego, thus bridging
over an important gulf in hydrographic knowledge, no detailed map of
this coast having previously been made, the vessels steered for the
Polar regions, doubling Staten Island without difficulty, and on the
15th January coming in sight of the first ice, an event causing no
little emotion, for now was to begin the really hard work of the
voyage.
Floating ice was not the only danger to be encountered in these
latitudes: a dense fog, which the keenest sight could not penetrate,
soon gathered about the vessels, paralyzing their movements, and though
they were under a foresail only, rendering a collision with the
ice-masses imminent. The temperature fell rapidly, and the
thermometrograph marked only two degrees on the surface of the sea,
whilst the deep water was below zero. Half-melted snow now began to
fall, and everything bore witness that the Antarctic regions were
indeed entered.
Clarence, New South Orkney Islands, could not be identified. Every
one's attention had to be concentrated on avoiding blocks of ice. At
midday on the 20th January the vessels were in S. lat. 62 degrees 3
minutes and W. long. 49 degrees 56 minutes, not far from the place were
Powell encountered compact ice-fields, and an immense ice-island was
soon sighted, some 6000 feet in extent and 300 in height, with
perpendicular sides greatly resembling land under certain conditions of
the light. Numerous whales and penguins were now seen swimming about
the vessels, whilst white petrels continually flew across them. On the
21st observations gave S. lat. 62 degrees 53 minutes, and D'Urville was
expecting soon to reach the 65th parallel, when at three a.m. he was
told that further progress was arrested by an iceberg, across which it
did not seem possible to cut a passage. The vessels were at once put
about and slowly steered in an easterly direction, the wind having
fallen.
"We were thus enabled," says D'Urville, "to gaze at our leisure upon
the wonderful spectacle spread out before our eyes. Severe and grand
beyond expression it not only excited the imagination but filled the
heart with involuntary terror, nowhere else is man's powerlessness more
forcibly brought before him.... A new world displays itself to him, but
it is a motionless, gloomy, and silent world, where everything
threatens the annihilation of human faculties. Should he have the
misfortune to be left here alone, no help, no consolation, no spark of
hope, would soothe his last moments. One is involuntarily reminded of
the famous inscription on the gate of the Inferno of Dante--
"'Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate.'"
D'Urville now set to work on a very strange task, which, as compared
with others of a similar kind, was likely to be of considerable value.
He had an exact measurement taken of the outlines of the iceberg. Had
other navigators done the same we should have had some precise
information as to the direction taken by icebergs, their movements,
&c., in the southern Polar regions, a subject still wrapped in the
greatest obscurity.
On the 22nd, after doubling a point, it was ascertained that the
iceberg was bearing S.S.W. by W. A lofty and broken piece of land was
sighted in these latitudes. Dumoulin had begun to survey it, and
D'Urville was about, as he thought, to identify it with the New South
Greenland of Morrell, when its outlines became dim and it sunk beneath
the horizon. On the 24th the two corvettes crossed a series of floating
islets, and entered a plain where the ice was melting. The passage,
however, became narrower and narrower, and they were obliged to veer
round, to save themselves from being blocked in.
Everything pointed to the conclusion that the edge of the ice was
melting, the ice-islands fell apart with loud reports, the ice running
off in little rivulets: there was undoubtedly a thaw, and Fanning had
been right in saying that these latitudes should not be visited before
February.
D'Urville now decided to steer for the north, and try to reach the
islands of New South Orkney, the map of which had not yet been
accurately laid down. The commander was anxious to survey that
archipelago thoroughly, and to spend several days there before resuming
his southerly course, so as to be in the Antarctic regions at the same
time of year as Weddell.
For three days the explorer coasted along the southern shores of New
South Orkney without being able to land; he then once more turned
southwards, and came in sight of the ice again in S. lat. 62 degrees 20
minutes and W. long. 39 degrees 28 minutes.
A few minutes before midday a kind of opening was discovered, through
which the vessels were forced at all risks. This bold manoeuvre was
successful, and in spite of the heavy snow, the explorers penetrated
into a small basin scarcely two miles in extent and hemmed in on every
side by lofty walls of ice. It was decided to make fast to the ice, and
when the order to cast anchor was given a young middy on board the
_Zelee_ cried naively, "Is there a port here? I shouldn't have thought
there were people living on the ice."
Great indeed was now the joyful enthusiasm on both vessels. Some of the
young officers of the _Zelee_ had come to empty a bowl of punch with
their comrades of the _Astrolabe_, and the commander could hear their
shouts of delight from his bed. He himself did not, however, look upon
the situation in quite the same favourable light. He felt that he had
done a very imprudent thing. Shut into a _cul-de-sac_, he could only go
out as he had come, and that he could not do until he had the wind
right aft. At eleven o'clock D'Urville was awoke by a violent shock,
accompanied by a noise of breaking, as if the vessel had struck on some
rocks. He got up, and saw that the _Astrolabe_, having drifted, had
struck violently against the ice, where she remained exposed to
collision with the masses of ice which the current was sweeping along
more rapidly than it did the vessel herself.
When day dawned the adventurers found themselves surrounded by ice, but
in the north a blackish blue line seemed to betray the existence of an
open sea. This direction was at once taken, but a thick fog immediately
and completely enveloped both ships, and when it cleared off they found
themselves face to face with a compact ice barrier, beyond which
stretched away as far as the eye could reach AN OPEN SEA!
D'Urville now resolved to cut himself a passage, and began operations
by dashing the _Astrolabe_ with all possible speed against the
obstacle. The vessel penetrated two or three lengths into the ice, and
then remained motionless. The crew climbed out of her on to the ice
armed with pickaxes, pincers, mattocks, and saws, and merrily
endeavoured to cut a passage. The fragment of ice was already nearly
crossed when the wind changed, and the motion of the waves in the
offing began to be felt, causing the officers to agree in urging a
retreat into the shelter of the ice-walls, for there was some danger if
the wind freshened of the vessel being embayed against the ice and
beaten to pieces by the waves and floating _debris_.
The corvettes had traversed twelve or fifteen miles for nothing, when
an officer, perched in the shrouds, sighted a passage in the E.N.E.
That direction was at once taken, but again it was found impossible to
cut a passage, and when night came the crew had to make the ship fast
to a huge block of ice. The loud cracking noises which had awoke the
commander the night before now began with such violence that it really
seemed impossible for the vessel to live till daylight.
After an interview with the captain of the _Zelee_, however, D'Urville
made for the north, but the day passed without any change being
effected in the position of the vessels, and the next day during a
storm of sleet the swell of the sea became so powerful as completely to
raise the ice plain in which they were imprisoned.
More careful watch than ever had now to be kept, to guard against the
pieces of ice flung long distances by this motion, and the rudder had
to be protected from them by a kind of wooden hut.
[Illustration: "The rudder had to be protected."]
With the exception of a few cases of ophthalmia, resulting from the
continual glare of the snow, the health of the crews was satisfactory,
and this was no little satisfaction to the leaders of the expedition,
compelled as they were to be continually on the _qui-vive_. Not until
the 9th February were the vessels, favoured by a strong breeze, able to
get off, and once more enter a really open sea. The ice had been
coasted for a distance of 225 leagues. The vessels had actually
sustained no further damage than the loss of a few spars and a
considerable portion of the copper sheathing, involving no further
leakage than there had been before.
The next day the sun came out, and observations could be taken, giving
the latitude as 62 degrees 9 minutes S., and the longitude 39 degrees
22 minutes W.
Snow continued to fall, the cold was intense, and the wind very violent
for the three succeeding days. This continuance of bad weather,
together with the increasing length of the nights, warned D'Urville of
the necessity of giving up all idea of going further. When, therefore,
he found himself in S. lat. 62 degrees and W. long. 33 degrees 11
minutes, in other words in that part of the ocean where Weddell had
been able to sail freely in 1823, and the new explorer had met with
nothing but impassable ice, he steered for New South Orkney. A whole
month passed amongst the ice and fogs of the Antarctic Ocean had told
upon the health of the crews, and nothing could be gained for science
by a continuance of the cruise.
On the 20th the archipelago was again sighted, and D'Urville was once
more driven out of his course in a northerly direction by the ice, but
he was able to put off with two boats, the crews of which collected on
Weddell Island a large number of geological specimens, lichens, &c.,
and some twenty penguins and chionis.
On the 25th February Clarence Island was seen, forming the eastern
extremity of the New South Shetland Archipelago, a very steep and
rugged district covered with snow except on the beach, and thence the
explorers steered towards Elephant Island, resembling Clarence Island
in every respect, except that it is strewn with peaks rising up black
against the plains of snow and ice. The islets of Narrow, Biggs,
O'Brien, and Aspland were successively identified, but covered as they
are with snow they are perfectly inaccessible to man. The little
volcano of Bridgeman was also seen, and the naturalists tried in vain
to land upon it from two boats.
"The general colour of the soil," says the narrative, "is red, like
that of burnt brick with particles of grey, suggestive of the presence
of pumice-stone, or of calcined cinders. Here and there on the beach
are seen great blackish-looking blocks, which are probably lava. This
islet has, however, only one true crater, although thick columns of
smoke are emitted from it, nearly all of them issuing from the base on
the western side, whilst in the north are two other fumerolles, thirty
or forty feet along the water. There are none on the eastern or
northern side, or at the top, which is smooth and round. The bulk
appears recently to have undergone some considerable modification, as
indeed it must have done, or it could not now resemble so little the
description given by Powell in December, 1822."
D'Urville soon resumed his southerly route, and on the 27th February
sighted a considerable belt of land in the south-east on which he was
prevented from landing by the fog and the continuous fall of very fine
snow. He was now in the latitude of Hope Island--i.e. in S. lat. 62
degrees 57 minutes. He approached it very closely, and sighted before
reaching it a low-lying land, to which he gave the name of Joinville.
Then further on in the south-west he came to an extensive district
which he named Louis Philippe, and between the two in a kind of
channel, encumbered with ice, an island he called Rosamel.
"Now," says D'Urville, "the horizon was so light that we could trace
all the irregularities of Louis Philippe's Land. We could see it
stretching away from Mount Bransfield in the north (62 degrees W.
long.) to the S.S.W., where it faded away on the horizon. From Mount
Bransfield to the south it is lofty, and of fairly uniform surface,
resembling a vast, unbroken ice-field. In the south, however, it rises
in the form of a fine peak (Mount Jacquinot), which is equal perhaps,
indeed superior, to Bransfield; but beyond this peak it stretches away
in the form of a mountain chain, ending in the south-west in a peak
loftier than any of the others. For the rest, the effect of the snow
and ice, together with the absence of any objects with which they can
be compared, aid in exaggerating the height of all irregularities, and,
as a matter of fact, the results of the measurements taken by M.
Dumoulin showed all these mountains, which then appeared to us gigantic
and equal to the Alps and Pyrenees at least, to be after all of very
medium size. Mount Bransfield, for instance, was not more than about
2068 feet high, Mount Jacquinot 2121 feet, and Mount d'Urville, the
loftiest of them all, about 3047 feet. Except for the islets grouped
about the mainland, and a few peaks rising above the snow, the whole
country is one long series of compact blocks of ice, and it is
impossible to do more than trace the outlines of this ice-crust, those
of the land itself being quite indistinguishable."
On the 1st March soundings gave only eighty fathoms with a bottom of
rock and gravel. The temperature is 1 degree 9 on the surface, and 0
degree 2 at the bottom of the sea. On the 2nd of March, off Louis
Philippe's Land, an island was sighted which was named Astrolabe, and
the day after a large bay, or rather strait, to which the name of
Orleans Channel was given was surveyed between Louis Philippe's Land,
and a lofty, rocky belt, which D'Urville took for the beginning of
Trinity Land, hitherto very inaccurately laid down.
From the 26th February then to the 5th March D'Urville remained in
sight of the coast, skirting along it a little distance off, but unable
entirely to regulate his course on account of the incessant fogs and
rain. Everything bore witness to the setting in of a very decided thaw;
the temperature rising at midday to five degrees above zero, whilst the
ice was everywhere melting and running off in little streams of water,
or falling with a formidable crush into the sea in the form of blocks,
the wind meanwhile blowing strongly from the west.
All this decided D'Urville against the further prosecution of this
voyage. The sea was heavy, the rain and fog incessant. It was therefore
necessary to leave this dangerous coast, and make for the north, where
on the following day he surveyed the most westerly islands of the New
Shetland group.
D'Urville next steered for Conception, and very arduous was the voyage
there, for, in spite of every precaution, the crews of both corvettes,
especially that of the _Zelee_, were attacked with scurvy. It was now
that D'Urville measured the heights of some of the waves, with a view
to the disproving of the charge of exaggeration which had been brought
against him when he had estimated those he had seen break over Needle
Bank at a height of between eighty and a hundred feet.
With the help of some of his officers, that there might be no doubt as
to his accuracy, D'Urville measured some waves of which the vertical
height was thirty-five feet, and which measured not less than 196-1/2
feet from the crest to the lowest point, making a total length of 393
feet for a single wave. These measurements were an answer to the
ironical assertion of Arago, who, settling the matter in his own study,
would not allow that a wave could exceed from five to six feet in
height. One need not hesitate a single moment to accept, as against the
eminent but impulsive physicist, the measurements of the navigators who
had made observations upon the spot.
On the 7th April, 1838, the expedition cast anchor in Talcahuano Bay,
where the rest so sorely needed by the forty scrofulous patients of the
_Zelee_ was obtained. Thence D'Urville made for Valparaiso, after
which, having entirely crossed Oceania, he cast anchor on the 1st
January, 1839, off Guam, arrived at Batina in October, and went thence
to Hobart's Town, whence, on the 1st January, 1840, he started on a new
trip in the Antarctic regions.
At this time D'Urville knew nothing either of Balleny's voyage, or of
the discovery of Sabrina's Land. He merely intended to go round the
southern extremity of Tasmania with a view to ascertaining beneath
which parallel he would meet with ice. He was under the impression that
the space between 120 degrees and 160 degrees E. long. had not yet been
explored, so that there was still a discovery to be made.
At first navigation was beset with the greatest difficulties. The swell
was very strong, the currents bore in an easterly direction, the
sanitary condition of the crews was far from satisfactory, and 58
degrees S. lat. had not yet been reached when the presence of ice was
ascertained.
The cold soon became very intense, the wind veered round to the W.N.W.,
and the sea became calm, a sure indication of the neighbourhood of land
or of ice. The former was the more generally received hypothesis, for
the ice-islands passed were too large to have been formed in the open
ocean. On the 18th January, S. lat. 64 degrees was reached, and great
perpendicular blocks of ice were met with, the height of which varied
from ninety to 100 feet, whilst the breadth exceeded 3000.
The next day, January 19th, 1840, a new land was sighted, to which the
name of Adelie was given. The sun was now burning hot, and the ice all
seemed to be melting, immense streams running down from the summits of
the rocks into the sea. The appearance of the land was monotonous,
covered as it was with snow. It ran from west to east, and seemed to
slope gradually down to the sea. On the 21st the wind allowed the
vessels to approach the beach, and deep ravines were soon made out,
evidently the result of the action of melted snow.
[Illustration: View of Adelie Land. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)]
[Illustration: Reduced Map of D'Urville's discoveries in the Antarctic
regions.]