JAMES COOK 85 
osity ; but we hope our not having found it, after all our 
persevering searches, will leave less room for future 
speculations about unknown worlds waiting to be ex- 
plored” 
The vast masses of ice in the Antarctic region pro- 
foundly impressed the navigator and convinced him that 
there was indeed a frigid continent within the Antarctic 
circle, though he had not caught sight of it. As to the 
lands he had seen, and the nature of those beyond, he con- 
cluded : 
“ Countries condemned to everlasting rigidity by Na- 
ture, never to yield to the warmth of the sun, for whose 
wild and desolate aspect I find no words ; such are the 
countries we have discovered ; what then may those resem- 
ble which lie still further to the south? . . . Should 
anyone possess the resolution and the fortitude to eluci- 
date this point by pushing yet further south than I have 
done, I shall not envy him the fame of his discovery, but 
I make bold to declare that the world will derive no bene- 
fit from it.” 
Looking back on the hardships and the difficulties of 
his attempts to penetrate the Antarctic regions, Cook 
was even led to declare that he believed no man would 
ever push farther south than he had done and that the 
region round the southern pole would always remain 
sealed up in its ice, unknown to man. He considered 
that his proof of the possibility of preserving the health 
of a ship’s company at sea throughout a long and trying 
voyage was the greatest of his achievements and enough 
in itself to make the voyage memorable “ when the dis- 
putes about a southern continent shall have ceased to 
engage the attention and to divide the judgment of 
philosophers.” The Royal Society awarded him the 
