wonder of the Deep_! I may call it
the _Romance of his Voyage_! Those very shoals, fields, and floating
mountains of ice, among which he steered his perilous course, and which
presented such terrifying prospects of destruction; those, I say, were
the very means of his support, by supplying him abundantly with what he
most wanted. It had been said that those stupendous masses of ice, called
_islands_ or _mountains_, melted into fresh water, though Crantz, the
relator of that paradox, did not imagine they originated from the sea,
but that they were first formed in the great rivers of the North, and
being carried down into the ocean, were afterwards increased to that
amazing height by the snow that fell upon them*. But that all frozen
sea-water would thaw into fresh, had either never been asserted, or had
met with little credit. This is certain that Captain Cook expected no
such transmutation, and therefore was agreeably surprised to find he had
one difficulty less to encounter, that of preserving the health of his
men so long on salt-provisions, with a scanty allowance of corrupted
water, or what he could procure by distillation The melted ice of the sea
was not only fresh but soft, and so wholesome, as to show the fallacy of
human reason unsupported by experiments. An ancient of great authority
had assigned, from theory, bad qualities to melted snow; and from that
period to the present times, this prejudice extended to ice had not been
quite removed.

[* Hist. of Greenland, b. I. ch, ii. para 11, 12.]

In this circumnavigation, amidst sleets and falls of snow, fogs, and much
moist weather, the _Resolution_ enjoyed nearly the same good state of
health she had done in the temperate and torrid zones. It appears only
from the journal of the Surgeon, that towards the end of the first
course* some of the crew began to complain of the scurvy; but the disease
made little progress, except in one who had become early an invalid from
another cause. The other disorders were likewise inconsiderable, such as
common colds, slight diarrhoeas, and intermittents that readily yielded
to the Bark: there were also some fevers of a continued form, but which
by timely care never rose to an alarming height. Much commendation is
therefore due to the attention and abilities of Mr. PATTEN, the Surgeon
of the _Resolution_, for having so well seconded his Captain in the
discharge of his duty. For it must be allowed, that in despite of the
best regu