COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE JAN. 



packed together ; so that it was not possible for any 

 thing to enter it. This was about a mile broad ; 

 within which was solid ice in one continued compact 

 body. It was rather low and flat, (except the hills,) 

 but seemed to increase in height, as you traced it to 

 the south ; in which direction it extended beyond 

 our sight. Such mountains of ice as these, were, I 

 believe, never seen in the Greenland seas ; at least, 

 not that I ever heard or read of; so that we cannot 

 draw a comparison between the ice here, and there. 

 It must be allowed that these prodigious ice-moun- 

 tains must add such additional weight to the ice- 

 fields which inclose them, as cannot but make a great 

 difference between the navigating this icy sea and 

 that of Greenland. 



I will not say it was impossible any where to get 

 farther to the south ; but the attempting it would 

 have been a dangerous and rash enterprise ; and what, 

 I believe, no man in my situation would have thought 

 of. It was, indeed, my opinion, as well as the opinion 

 of most on board, that this ice extended quite to the 

 pole, or, perhaps, joined to some land, to which it 

 had been fixed from the earliest time ; and that it is 

 here, that is to the south of this parallel, where all 

 the ice we find scattered up and down to the north, 

 is first formed, and afterwards broken off by gales of 

 wind, or other causes, and brought to the north by 

 the currents, which we always found to set in that 

 direction in the high latitudes. As we drew near 

 this ice, some penguins were heard, but none seen ; and 

 but few other birds, or any other thing, that could 

 induce us to think any land was near. And yet I 

 think there must be some to the south behind this 

 ice ; but if there is, it can afford no better retreat for 

 birds, or any other animals, than the ice itself, with 

 which it must be wholly covered. I, who had ambi- 

 tion not only to go farther than any one had been 

 before, but as far as it was possible for man to go, 

 was not sorry at meeting with this interruption ; as it, 



