The Reader, It May Be Presumed, Has Enough Of This Subject.

- E.

[2] "At noon, on the 10th December, we had reached the latitude of 59 deg. S., without having met with any ice, though we fell in with it the preceding year on the 10th December, between the 50th and 51st degree of south latitude. It is difficult to account for this difference; perhaps a severe winter preceding our first course from the Cape of Good Hope, might accumulate more ice that year than the next, which is the more probable, as we learnt at the Cape that the winter had been sharper there than usual; perhaps a violent storm might break the polar ice, and drive it so far to the northward as we found it; and, perhaps, both these causes might concur with others, to produce this effect." - G.F.

"It is remarkable, that in different years, seasons, and places of the sea, we found the ice differently situated. In the year 1772, December 10th, we saw the ice between 50 deg. and 51 deg. of southern latitude. In 1773, on December 12th, we found the first ice in 62 deg. S. In 1775, on January 27th, we saw the ice in about 60 deg. S. On February 24th, we came to the same place, where, about twenty-six months before, we had met with such an impenetrable body of ice, as had obliged us to run to the east, but where, at this last time, no vestige of it appeared, no more than at the place where Bouvet had placed his Cape Circumcision, we having sailed over the whole tract which he suspected to be land; nor could we be mistaken in its situation, as we had been on the same parallel for a considerable time; so that it is impossible to have missed the land, if any had existed, as we had frequent opportunities to ascertain our latitude." - F.

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