202 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



greatly heightened by the inexpressibly horrid aspect ol 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 thick- 

 ness ; 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." 



After such an explanation as this, the reader will not 

 expect to find them much farther to the south. It was, 

 however, not for want of inclination, but for other reasons. 

 It would have been rashness to have risked all that had 

 been done during the voyage, in discovering a coast which, 

 when discovered, would have answered no end whatever, 

 or have been of the least use either to navigation or 

 geography, or indeed to any other science, save magnetic ; 

 and besides all this, they were not now in a condition to 

 undertake great things, nor indeed was there time, had 

 they been ever so well provided. 



These reasons induced Captain Cook to alter his course 

 to the east, with a very strong gale at north, attended 

 with an exceedingly heavy fall of snow. The quantity 

 which lodged in their sails was so great, that they were 

 frequently obliged to throw the ship up in the wind to 

 shake it out of them, otherwise neither they nor the ship 

 could have supported the weight. 



On the 10th, the weather became fair, but piercing cold, 

 so that the water on deck was frozen, and at noon the 

 mercury in the thermometer was no higher than 34|. 



On the 22nd of February, as they were within two degrees 

 of longitude from their route to the south, when they left 

 the Cape of Good Hope, it was to no purpose to proceed 

 any farther to the east under this parallel, knowing that 

 no land could be there. 



They had now made the circuit of the Southern ocean 

 in a high latitude, and traversed it in such a manner as 

 to leave not the least room for the possibility of there 

 being a continent, unless near the pole, and, as it was 

 then thought, out of the reach of navigation. By twice 

 visiting the tropical sea, they had not only settled the 

 situation of some old discoveries, but made there many 

 new ones, and left very little more to be done in that part. 

 Thus the intention of the voyage had, in every respect 

 been fully answered ; the southern hemisphere sufficiently 

 explored, and a final end put to the searching after a 

 southern continent. 



Their sails and rigging were so much worn, that some- 

 thing was giving way every hour, and they had nothing 



