COOK'S VOYAGES 7 



inclined to think that the evidences are by no means sufficient 

 to support this view. 



After turning, Cook retreated to the north, and spent the 

 winter amongst the Pacific Islands ; in November he once 

 more turned south and made his way towards Cape Horn 

 between the parallels of 50 and 60 S., and thus for the first 

 time traversed the Pacific in a high southern latitude. After 

 doing much valuable surveying work in the region of Cape 

 Horn and South Georgia, he again steered to the east, and 

 now crossing the Atlantic in a high latitude, between 58 and 

 60 S., he finally returned to the Cape. 



The importance of this voyage can scarcely be exaggerated ; 

 once and for all the idea of a populous fertile Southern conti- 

 nent was proved to be a myth, and it was clearly shown that 

 whatever land might exist to the south it must be a region of 

 desolation hidden beneath a mantle of ice and snow. The 

 vast extent of the tempestuous Southern Seas was revealed, 

 and the limits of the habitable globe were made known. Inci- 

 dentally it may be remarked that Cook was the first to describe 

 the peculiarities of the Antarctic icebergs and floe-ice. 



One might pause here to consider the extent of human 

 knowledge as regards the Antarctic Regions at the end of the 

 eighteenth century after Cook's voyages, because it can be 

 stated with brevity. The ocean was known to encircle the 

 world completely about the 60th parallel ; beyond this lay a 

 region of icebergs and intense cold ; attempts to penetrate this 

 inhospitable region had seemed to show that in many places 

 ships might force their way to the Antarctic Circle, but at 

 about this latitude they were stopped by impenetrable 

 obstacles ; if land lay beyond this, it was, in Cook's words, as 

 ' countries condemned to everlasting rigidity by nature, never 

 to yield to the warmth of the sun, for whose wild and desolate 

 aspect I find no words.' Generally speaking, therefore, people 

 had come to the conclusion that if land existed beyond the 

 60th parallel, it was not of much account. 



After the return of Cook no important expedition was sent 

 to the Southern Seas until 181 9, when Bellingshausen sailed 



