and
traversed it in such a manner as to leave not the least room for the
possibility of there being a continent, unless near the Pole, and out of
the reach of navigation. By twice visiting the tropical sea, I had not
only settled the situation of some old discoveries, but made there many
new ones, and left, I conceive, very little more to be done even in that
part. Thus I flatter myself, that the intention of the voyage has, in
every respect, been fully answered; the southern hemisphere sufficiently
explored, and a final end put to the searching after a southern
continent, which has, at times, ingrossed the attention of some of the
maritime powers, for near two centuries past, and been a favourite
theory amongst the geographers of all ages.

That there may be a continent, or large tract of land, near the Pole, I
will not deny; on the contrary I am of opinion there is; and it is
probable that we have seen a part of it. The excessive cold, the many
islands and vast floats of ice, all tend to prove that there must be
land to the south; and for my persuasion that this southern land must
lie, or extend, farthest to the north opposite to the southern Atlantic
and Indian oceans, I have already assigned some reasons; to which I may
add the greater degree of cold experienced by us in these seas, than in
the southern Pacific ocean under the same parallels of latitude.

In this last ocean, the mercury in the thermometer seldom fell so low as
the freezing point, till we were in 60 deg. and upwards; whereas in the
others, it fell as low in the latitude of 54 deg.. This was certainly owing
to there being a greater quantity of ice, and to its extending farther
to the north, in these two seas than in the south Pacific; and if ice be
first formed at, or near land, of which I have no doubt, it will follow
that the land also extends farther north.

The formation or coagulation of ice-islands has not, to my knowledge,
been thoroughly investigated. Some have supposed them to be formed by
the freezing of the water at the mouths of large rivers, or great
cataracts, where they accumulate till they are broken off by their own
weight. My observations will not allow me to acquiesce in this opinion;
because we never found any of the ice which we took up incorporated with
earth, or any of its produce, as I think it must have been, had it been
coagulated in land-waters. It is a doubt with me, whether there be any
rivers in these countries. It is