177^- ROUND THE WORLD. 211 



shifted to the S., and made it necessary to tack and 

 stand to the E ; in which course we met with several 

 ice-islands and some loose ice, the weather con- 

 tinuing hazy with snow and rain. 



No penguins were seen on the 5th, which made 

 me conjecture that we were leaving the land behind 

 us, and that we had already seen its northern ex- 

 tremity. At noon we were in the latitude of 57° 8' S., 

 longitude 23° 34' W., which was 3° of longitude to 

 the east of Saunders's isle. In the afternoon the 

 wind shifted to the W., this enabled us to stretch to 

 the S., and to get into the latitude of the land, that, 

 if it took an east direction, we might again fall in 

 with it. 



We continued to steer to the S. and S.E. till next 

 day at noon, at which time we were in the latitude 

 of 58° 15' $., longitude 21° 34' W., and seeing neither 

 land nor signs of any, I concluded that what we had 

 seen, which I named Sandwich Land, was either a 

 group of islands, or else a point of the continent ; 

 for I firmly believe that there is a track of land near 

 the pole which is the source of most of the ice that 

 is spread over this vast Southern Ocean. I also 

 think it probable that it extends farthest to the 

 north opposite the southern Atlantic and Indian 

 Oceans, because ice was always found by us farther 

 to the north in these oceans than any where else, 

 which I judge could not be, if there were not land to 

 the S. ; I mean a land of considerable extent. For 

 if we suppose that no such land exists, and that ice 

 may be formed without it, it will follow of course 

 that the cold ought to be every where nearly equal 

 round the pole, as far as JO or 60° of latitude, or so 

 far as to be beyond the influence of any of the known 

 continents ; consequently we ought to see ice every 

 where under the same parallel, or near it ; and yet 

 the contrary has been found. Very few ships have 

 met with ice going round Cape Horn ; and we saw 

 but little below the sixtieth degree of latitude, in the 



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