pxcxHBui ' who is faid to have vifited the antipodes, which the legend
expreffès by “ his having palled under the middle arch of
“ London-bridgebut this is a miftake, as his track lay
along the coaft of America, and probably originates from
his having paffed the periaci, or the point in 18o° long, on
the fame circle of north latitude, on the coaft of California.
In proportion as we advanced to the fouthward the ther-
Jiiday to. mometer f e l l and on the i oth, in the morning, the wind
coming more ahead, it defcended to 37 °. At noon we had
reached the latitude of s 9° fouth, without having met
with any ice, though we .fell in with it the preceding year
on the 10th of December, between the 50th and 5 1 ft deg.
of- fouth latitude. It is difficult to account for this difference
; perhaps a fevere winter preceding our firft courfe 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 (harper there
than ufual ; perhaps a violent ftorm might break the polar
ice, and drive it fo far to the northward as we found i t ; and
perhaps both thefecaufes might concur, with others, to produce
this effetft.
On the 11 th, at night, the cold encreafed, the thermometer
Handing at 34 deg. and at' four o’clock the next
Sunday w morning a large ifland of floating ice was feen ahead, which
we paffed an hour afterwards. At eight o’clock the thermometer
was already at 3 deg. the air being probably refrigerated
A VOY AGE ROUND THE WORLD.
frigerated by the ice, though we did not fee more than December
this one piece. At noon We found the latitude to be 6 i°
46' fouth. The next morning the thermometer flood at
31 deg, and we ran to the eaftward with a frelh breeze,
though we had a furprifing fall of fnow, which filled the
air to fuch a degree that we could not fee ten yards before
us. Our friend Mahine had already exprefled his furprize
at feveral little fnow and hail fhowers on the preceding
days, this phamomenon being utterly unknown in his country.
The appearance of “ white ftones,” which melted in
his hand, was altogether miraculous in his eyes, and
though we endeavoured to explain to him that cold was
the caufe of their formation, yet I believe his ideas on that
fubjeft were never very clear. The heavy fall of fnow this
day furprifed him more than what he had feen before, and
after a long confideration of its Angular qualities, he told
us he would call it the white rain when he came back to his
country. He did not fee the firft ice on account of the early
hour of the morning; but two days after, in about 6 s deg.
o f fouth latitude, he was ft ruck with aftonifhmcnt upon
feeing one of the largeft pieces, and the day following pre-
fented him with an extenfive field of ice, which blocked up
Our farther progrefs to the fouth, and gave him great plea-
fure, fuppofing it to be land. We told him that fo far from
being land, it was nothing but frefh water, which we
found fome difficulty to convince him off at firft, till, we
V ol . I. Y y y (hewed