cond argument is equally unsubstantial, and may be as readily
invalidated. In fact, the principal thing requisite for the congelation
of water in any circumstances of situation, is the reduction of the
temperature to a certain point, to the effect of which, it is well
known, the agitation of the water often materially contributes. It may
be remarked also, that as the beat of the ocean seems to diminish in
pretty regular progression from the surface downwards, so it is highly
probable, that, even at considerable distances from the Pole, the lower
strata may be in a state of congelation; much more probably, therefore,
there may exist at and near the Pole, a mass of ice of indefinite size
and durability, which, extending to greater or smaller distances
according to different circumstances, may serve as the basis, or _point
d'appui_, of all the islands and fields of ice discoverable in this
region. Ice, in fact, is just as capable of a fixed position as earth
is, or any other solid body, and may accordingly have constituted the
substratum of the southern hemisphere within the polar circle, since the
time that this planet assumed its present form and condition. So much
then on the subject of a southern continent, which, after all, we see is
not worth being disputed about, and appears to be set up, as it were, in
absolute derision of human curiosity and enterprise. Wise men, it is
likely, notwithstanding such promissory eulogiums as Mr Dalrymple held
out, will neither venture their lives to ascertain its existence, nor
lose their time and tempers in arguing about it. Cook's observation, it
is perhaps necessary to remark, as to the ice extending further towards
the north opposite the Atlantic and Indian oceans than any where else,
may be accounted for without the supposition he makes in explanation of
it. Thus certain warm currents of water may be conceived to proceed from
the north, towards those other parts where the ice has not been seen to
extend so far, and to prevent the formation of it to the same distance;
or again, there may be islands and rocks, to which the ice adheres, in
the situations mentioned by Cook. Both causes, indeed, may operate, and
there may be others also quite equivalent to the effect. But it is full
time to leave this merely curious subject. Mr G.F. has somewhat wittily
remarked, that the opinion of the existence of a southern continent
maintained by some philosophers, though much invalidated by this voy