By the 30th of the month, through obstructions and difficulties, which, from their similar nature to those already mentioned, it would be tedious to repeat, he reached to the seventy-first degree of latitude.

Thus far had he gone: but to have proceeded farther would have been the height of folly and madness.

It would have been exposing himself, his men, and his ship to the utmost danger, and perhaps to destruction, without the least prospect of advantage.

The captain was of opinion, as indeed were most of the gentlemen on board, that the ice now in sight extended quite to the pole, or might join to some land, to which it might be fixed from the earliest time.

If, however, there be such land, it can afford no better retreat for birds, or any other animals, than the ice itself, with which it must be wholly covered.