HISTORY OF DISCO VERY. 41 



and an albatross feeding on them heartily. The icebergs 

 now increased to gigantic size, their outlines clearly de- 

 fined, and not worn by waves or weather, the sides 

 vertical, the upper surface flat and covered with snow ; 

 one of them had an extent of three or four nautical 

 miles. On the 30th of January a remarkably bright ice- 

 blink was seen (this is the name given to the reflection 

 of extensive tracts of ice against the misty sky), and 

 the Resolution very soon reached the edge of the pack- 

 ice. (The Adventure had separated from her consort as 

 early as the 29th of October, 1773, and was not met 

 again during the whole voyage.) The dazzling white 

 mass of ice stretched away interminably towards the 

 south, and presented a striking appearance. Immedi- 

 ately to the south of the ship there was a belt of pack-ice 

 a nautical mile in breadth, i.e., masses of ice towering 

 above one another, between which numerous icebergs 

 were wedged in. Behind this belt of pack-ice rose a per- 

 fectly compact, unbroken mass of ice, which seemed pretty 

 level, and not very high, but rising towards the south, 

 where it gradually disappeared on the horizon. In the 

 distance Cook clearly distinguished in this mass of ice 

 ninety-seven ice-hills, as he here calls them, many of them 

 lofty. They exactly resembled mountain chains, one 

 summit rising above the other till they were lost in the 

 clouds. The place of the ship from which this wonderful 

 appearance was observed by Cook was latitude Ji° id S. 

 and longitude 106° 54' W., by far the most southern point 

 reached either before or for many a decade after. In 

 the circumstances it was naturally perfectly impossible 

 to attempt any advance. Cook himself held the opinion, 

 which seems to have been shared by nearly every one on 

 board, that this ice stretched away to the pole, and that 

 it had for ages been connected with land in the back- 

 ground. He concluded that this was the vast store from 

 which proceeded all the icebergs he had met farther north. 



