degree of latitude, in the Southern Pacific Ocean. Whereas in this
ocean, between the meridian of 40° west and 50° or 60° east, we found
ice as far north as 51°. Bouvet met with, some in 48°, and others have
seen it in a much lower latitude. It is true, however, that the greatest
part of this southern continent (supposing there is one), must lie
within the polar circle, where the sea is so pestered with ice, that the
land is thereby inaccessible. The risque one runs in exploring a coast,
in these unknown and icy seas, is so very great, that I can be bold
enough to say that no man will ever venture farther than I have done;
and that the lands which may lie to the south will never be explored.
Thick fogs, snow storms, intense cold, and every other thing that can
render navigation dangerous, must be encountered, and these difficulties
are greatly heightened by the inexpressibly horrid aspect of the
country; a country doomed by nature never once to feel the warmth of
the sun's rays, but to lie buried in everlasting snow and ice. The ports
which may be on the coast, are, in a manner, wholly filled up with
frozen snow of vast thickness; but if any should be so far open as to
invite a ship into it, she would run a risque of being fixed there for
ever, or of coming out in an ice island. The islands and floats on the
coast, the great falls from the ice-cliffs in the port, or a heavy
snow-storm attended with a sharp frost, would be equally fatal.

After such an explanation as this, the reader must not expect to find me
much farther to the south. It was, however, not for want of inclination,
but for other reasons. It would have been rashness in me to have risqued
all that had been done during the voyage, in discovering and exploring a
coast, which, when discovered and explored, would have answered no end
whatever, or have been of the least use, either to navigation or
geography, or indeed to any other science. Bouvet's discovery was yet
before us, the existence of which was to be cleared up; and, besides all