212 COOK S SECOND VOYAGE EEB. 



Southern Pacific Ocean. Whereas in this ocean, 

 between the meridian of 40° W. and 50° or 60° E., we 

 found ice as far N, as 51°. Bouvet met with some 

 in 48°; and others have seen it in a much lower 

 latitude. It is true, however, that the greatest part 

 of this southern continent (supposing there is one) 

 must lie within the polar circle, where the sea is so 

 pestered with ice that the land is thereby inaccessible. 

 The risk one runs in exploring a coast, in these 

 unknown and icy seas, is so very great, that I can 

 be bold enough to say that no man will ever venture 

 farther than 1 have done ; and that the lands which 

 may lie to the south will never be explored. Thick 

 fogs, snow-storms, intense cold, and every other 

 thing that can render navigation dangerous, must be 

 encountered ; and these difficulties are greatly 

 heightened, by the inexpressibly horrid aspect of the 

 country ; a country doomed by nature never once to 

 feel the warmth of the sun's rays, but to lie buried in 

 everlasting snow and ice. The ports which may be 

 on the coast, are, in a manner, wholly filled up with 

 frozen snow of vast thickness ; but if any should be 

 so far open as to invite a ship into it, she would run 

 a risk of being fixed there for ever, or of coming 

 out in an ice-island. The islands and floats on the 

 coast, the great falls from the ice-cliffs in the port, or 

 a heavy snow storm attended with a sharp frost, 

 would be equally fatal. 



After such an explanation as this, the reader must 

 not expect to find me much farther to the south. It 

 was, however, not for want of inclination, but for 

 other reasons. It would have been rashness in me 

 to have risked all that had been done during the 

 voyage, in discovering and exploring a coast, which, 

 when discovered and explored, would have answered 

 no end whatever, or have been of the least use, either 

 to navigation or geography, or indeed to any other 

 science. Bouvet's discovery w 7 as yet before us, the 

 existence of which was to be cleared up j and besides 



