A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

I will not say it was impossible any where to get farther to the south; but the attempting it would have beena dangerous and rash enterprise, and what, I believe, no man in my situation would have thought of. It was,indeed, my opinion, as well as the opinion of most on board, that this ice extended quite to the pole, orperhaps joined on some land, to which it had been fixed from the earliest time; and that it is here, that is tothe south of this parallel, where all the ice we find scattered up and down to the north, is first formed, andafterwards broken off by gales of wind, or other causes, and brought to the north by the currents, which wealways found to set in that direction in the high latitudes. As we drew near this ice some penguins wereheard, but none seen; and but few other birds or any other thing that could induce us to think any land wasnear. And yet I think, there must be some to the south behind this ice; but if there is, it can afford no betterretreat for birds, or any other animals, than the ice itself, with which it must be wholly covered. I, who hadambition not only to go farther than any one had been before, but as far as it was possible for man to go,was not sorry at meeting with this interruption, as it in some measure relieved us, at least shortened thedangers and hardships inseparable from the navigation of the southern polar regions. Since, therefore, wecould not proceed one inch farther to the south, no other reason need be assigned for my tacking andstanding back to the north; being at this time in the latitude of 71° 10' S., longitude 106° 54' W.[12][12] "The thermometer here was 32°, and a great many penguins were heard croaking around us, butcould not be seen, on account of the foggy weather which immediately succeeded. As often as wehad hitherto penetrated to the southward, we had met with no land, but been stopped sooner or laterby a solid ice-field, which extended before us as far as we could see: At the same time we hadalways found the winds moderate and frequently easterly in these high latitudes, in the same manneras they are said to be in the northern frozen zone. From these circumstances, my father had been ledto suppose, that all the south pole, to the distance of 20 degrees, more or less, is covered with solidice, of which only the extremities are annually broken off by storms, consumed by the action of thesun, and regenerated in winter. This opinion is the less exceptionable, since there seems to be noabsolute necessity for the existence of land towards the formation of ice, and because we have littlereason to suppose that there actually is any land of considerable extent in the frigid zone."--G.F."Mr F. has most amply and ably discussed the point in his observations, controverting unanswerably,as the writer thinks, the opinion of Buffon and others, as to the existence of southern lands beingnecessary for the production of such large masses of ice. The limits of the present note preclude theinsertion, in any satisfactory shape, of the opposing arguments; but there is ground for anticipatingan opportunity of considering the subject, and some others of an interesting nature, in a manner moresuitable to their importance, than a mere notice implies. We go on then with the narrative.--E.It was happy for us that the weather was clear when we fell in with this ice, and that we discovered it sosoon as we did; for we had no sooner tacked than we were involved in a thick fog. The wind was at east,and blew a fresh breeze, so that we were enabled to return back over that space we had already madeourselves acquainted with. At noon, the mercury in the thermometer stood at 32-1/2, and we found the airexceedingly cold. The thick fog continuing with showers of snow, gave a coat of ice to our rigging of nearan inch thick. In the afternoon of the next day the fog cleared away at intervals; but the weather was cloudyand gloomy, and the air excessively cold; however, the sea within our horizon was clear of ice.We continued to stand to the north, with the wind easterly, till the afternoon on the first of February, whenfalling in with some loose ice which had been broken from an island to windward we hoisted out twoboats, and having taken some on board, resumed our course to the N. and N.E., with gentle breezes from S.E., attended sometimes with fair weather, and at other times with snow and sleet. On the 4th we were in thelatitude of 65° 42' S., longitude 99° 44'. The next day the wind was very unsettled both in strength andposition, and attended with snow and sleet. At length, on the 6th, after a few hours calm, we got a breeze at