!77£» ROUND THE WORLD. 219 



CHAP. VII. 



HEADS OF WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IN THE VOYAGE ; WITH 

 SOME CONJECTURES CONCERNING THE FORMATION OF ICE- 

 ISLANDS ; AND AN ACCOUNT OF OUR PROCEEDINGS TILL 

 OUR ARRIVAL AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 



I had now made the circuit of the Southern Ocean 

 in a high latitude, and traversed it in such a man- 

 ner as to leave not the least room for the possibility 

 of there being a continent, unless near the pole, and 

 out of the reach of navigation. By twice visiting 

 the tropical sea, I had not only settled the situation 

 of some old discoveries, but made there many new 

 ones, and left, I conceive, very little more to be 

 done even in that part. Thus I natter myself, that 

 the intention of the voyage has, in every respect, 

 been fully answered ; the southern hemisphere suffi- 

 ciently explored ; and a final end put to the search- 

 ing after a southern continent, which has, at times, 

 ingrossed the attention of some of the maritime 

 powers for near two centuries past, and been a fa- 

 vourite theory amongst the geographers of all ages. 



That there may be a continent, or large tract of 

 land, near the pole, I will not deny ; on the con- 

 trary, I am of opinion there is ; and it is probable 

 that we have seen a part of it. The excessive cold, 

 the many islands and vast floats of ice, all tend to 

 prove that there must be land to the south ; and for 

 my persuasion that this southern land must lie, or ex- 

 tend, farthest to the north, opposite to the Southern 

 Atlantic and Indian Oceans, I have already assigned 

 some reasons ; to which I may add the greater de- 

 gree of cold experienced by us in these seas, than in 

 the Southern Pacific Ocean under the same parallels 

 of latitude. 



In this last ocean, the mercury in the thermometer 

 seldom fell so low as the freezing point, till we were 



