xx WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORED 
was finally turned back by an immense field of pack, and 
wrote: 
“T will not say it was impossible anywhere to get far- 
ther to the south; but the attempting it would have been 
a dangerous and rash enterprise, and what, | believe, no 
man in my situation would have thought of. It was, indeed, 
my opinion, as well as the opinion of most on board, that 
this ice extended quite to the Pole, or perhaps joined to 
some land, to which it had been fixed from the earliest 
time; and that it is here, that is to the south of this parallel, 
where all the ice we find scattered up and down to the 
north is first formed, and afterwards broken off by gales of 
wind, or other causes, and brought to the north by the cur- 
rents, which are always found to set in that direction in the 
high latitudes. As we drew near this ice some penguins 
were heard, but none seen; and but few other birds, or 
any other thing that could induce us to think any land was 
near. And yet I think there must be some to the south be- 
yond this ice; but if there is it can afford no better retreat 
for birds, or any other animals, than the ice itself, with 
which it must be wholly covered. I, who had ambition not 
only to go farther than any one had been before, but as far 
as it was possible for man to go, was not sorry at meeting 
with this interruption; as it, in some measure, relieved us; 
at least, shortened the dangers and hardships inseparable 
from the navigation of the Southern Polar regions.” 4 
And so he turned northwards, when, being “taken ill of 
the bilious colic,” a favourite dog belonging to one of the 
officers (Mr. Forster, after whom Aptenodytes forsteri, the 
Emperor penguin, is named) “fell a sacrifice to my tender 
stomach. . . . Thus I received nourishment and strength, 
from food which would have made most people in Europe 
sick: so true it is that necessity is governed by no law.” ? 
“Once and for all the idea of a populous fertile southern 
continent was proved to be a myth, and it was clearly shown 
that whatever land might exist to the South must be a 
region of desolation hidden beneath a mantle of ice and 
snow. The vast extent of the tempestuous southern seas 
1 Cook, A Voyage towards the South Pole, vol. i. p. 268. 2 Ibid. p. 275. 
