We compare the substructures of the 1997 February 07 coronal mass ejection (CME) observed near the Sun with a corresponding event in the interplanetary medium to determine the origin of magnetic clouds (MCs). We find that the eruptive prominence core of the CME observed near the Sun may not directly become a magnetic cloud as suggested by some authors and that it might instead become the pressure pulse following the magnetic cloud. We substantiate our conclusions using time of arrival, size and composition estimates of the CME-MC substructures obtained from ground based, SOHO and WIND observations. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union