He selected Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen. During two expeditions, undertaken in 1767 and 1768, for the encouragement and protection of the cod-fisheries on the coast of Iceland, this navigator had surveyed a great number of ports and roadsteads, collected astronomical observations, rectified the map of Iceland, and accumulated a mass of particulars concerning this little-known country. It was he, indeed, who gave the earliest authentic account of "geysers," those springs of warm water which occasionally reach to such great heights, and he also supplied curious details of the existence of fossil wood, which prove that at an early geological period, Iceland, now entirely devoid of trees, possessed enormous forests. Kerguelen had at the same time published novel details of the manners and customs of the inhabitants. "The women," he said, "have dresses, jackets, and aprons made of a cloth called 'wadmal' which is made in Iceland. They wear an ample robe above their jackets, rather like that of the Jesuits, but not so long as the petticoats, which they allow to be seen. These robes are of different colours, but generally black; they are called 'hempe.' They are trimmed with velvet or some other ornament. The head-dresses look like pyramids or sugar-loaves, two or three feet high. The women ornament the head with a large handkerchief of very coarse cloth, which stands upright, and they cover it with another finer one, which forms the shape of which I spoke." Lastly, Kerguelen had collected very interesting documents, relating to Denmark, the Laplanders, the Samoyedes, the Faroe Islands, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, which he had thoroughly explored. Kerguelen, entrusted with the examination of the route proposed by Grenier, asked permission of the minister to employ his ship to explore all the southern lands discovered in 1739 by Bouvet de Lozier. The Abbe Terray, who had just succeeded the Duke of Praslin, gave him command of the ship _Le Berryer_, which brought 300 able-bodied seamen and provisions for fourteen months from Lorient, together with some ammunition for Mauritius. The Abbe Rochon was associated with Kerguelen, for making astronomical observations. Upon reaching Mauritius, on the 20th of August, 1771, Kerguelen exchanged the _Berryer_ for the _La Fortune_, to which a small vessel, the _Gros-ventre_, with sixteen guns and a crew of a hundred men, was attached under command of M. de Saint Allouarn. As soon as the two vessels were equipped, Kerguelen set sail and steered northward in search of the Mahe Islands. During a great storm, the sounding lines of the _Fortune_ gave an ever-decreasing depth, first thirty, then twenty, and at last only fourteen fathoms. Anchor was then cast, and it held fast throughout the tempest.