[12] "The thermometer here was 32°, and a great many penguins were heard croaking around us, but could not be seen, on account of the foggy weather which immediately succeeded. As often as we had hitherto penetrated to the southward, we had met with no land, but been stopped sooner or later by a solid ice-field, which extended before us as far as we could see: At the same time we had always found the winds moderate and frequently easterly in these high latitudes, in the same manner as they are said to be in the northern frozen zone. From these circumstances, my father had been led to suppose, that all the south pole, to the distance of 20 degrees, more or less, is covered with solid ice, of which only the extremities are annually broken off by storms, consumed by the action of the sun, and regenerated in winter. This opinion is the less exceptionable, since there seems to be no absolute necessity for the existence of land towards the formation of ice, and because we have little reason 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 being necessary for the production of such large masses of ice. The limits of the present note preclude the insertion, in any satisfactory shape, of the opposing arguments; but there is ground for anticipating an opportunity of considering the subject, and some others of an interesting nature, in a manner more suitable to their importance, than a mere notice implies. We go on then with the narrative.--E.