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deceived by the inferences which were drawn from what had been 

 obferved in the feas of the Northern hemifphere ? 



Bouvet, in 1738, failed to 53 S. lat. and in a meridian 

 5 degrees to the W. of the Cape of Good Hope, in which fituation 

 he fell in with floating ice ; after which he did not proceed any- 

 further. Our two fhips of war, lately fent upon difcoveries to 

 the Southward, however, have been fome minutes within the 

 Antarctic circle, upon a no very diftant meridian from that in ! 

 which Bouvet failed. 



Muft the fact be difbelieved becaufe all the ice in the Polar 

 feas comes from the Northward ? But this is not fb, as Mr. . 

 Grey informs us \ that the S. E. wind brings the greateft quantity - 

 of ice to the coafts of Spitzbergen ; which indeed is highly proba- 

 ble, as this wind blows from thofe parts of the Icy Sea into which 

 the great rivers of Siberia and Tartary empty themfelves u . My 

 own poor conception, with regard to the floating ice in the 

 Spitzbergen feas, is, that thefe manes come almofr. entirely from 

 the fame quarter, as it is fo difficult to freeze any large quan- 

 tity of fait water. Thefe pieces of ice, therefore, being once 

 launched into the Icy Sea, are difperfed by winds, tides, and cur- 

 rents, in every direction, fome of them being perhaps carried to 

 very high Northern latitudes, from which they are again wafted 

 to the Southward. 



But allowing, for an inftant, that all the ice may come from 

 the Northward, muft not then an open fea be left in the higher 



I Dr. Birch's Hift. R. Soc. 



II The ice is faid to be never troublefome in the harbour of Newport 

 (Rhode Hlancjj N. America); becaufe no frem water rivers empty them- 

 felves by this port; whereas the harbour of N. York (though much to 

 the Southward) is often obftructed by the ice, which floats down from 

 Hudfon's River. 



Northern 



