certain, and that the expence muft be trifling; they feldom fail to perfuade. An affociation is formed; a fmall fum is advanced by each co-partner; the mine is opened; the fearcher is entrusted with the fole direction of every operation; unforeseen difficulties occur; new demands of money are made; but amidit a fucceffion of difappointments and delays, hope is never extinguished, and the ardour of expectation hardly abates. For it is obferved, that if any perfon once enters this feducing path, it is almoft impoffible to return; his ideas alter, he feems to be p ffeffed with another fpirit, vifions of imaginary wealth are continually before his eyes, and he thinks, and fpeaks, and dreams of nothing else. Such is the fpirit that must be formed, wherever the active exertions of any fociety are chiefly employed in working mines of gold and filver. No fpirit is more adverfe to fuch improvement in agriculture and commerce, as render a nation really opulent. If the fyftem of adminiftration in the Spanish colonies had been founded upon principles of found policy, the power and ingenuity of the legiflature would have been exerted with as much ardour, in reftraining its fubjects from fuch pernicious industry, as is now employed in alluring them towards it. Projects of mining (fays a good judge of the political conduct of nations) inftead of replacing the capital em ployed in them, together with the ordinary profit of ftock, commonly abforb both capital and profit. They are the projects, therefore, to which, of all others, a prudent law-giver, who defired to increase the capital of his nation, would leaft chufe to give any extraordinary encouragement, or to turn towards them a greater thare of that capital than would go to them of its own accord. Such, in reality, is the abfurd confidence which all men have in their own good fortune, that wherever there is the leaft probability of fuccefs, too great a fhare of it is apt to go to them of its own accord." But in the Spanifh colonies, government is fludious to cherish a fpirit which it fhould have laboured to deprefs, and by the fanction of its approbation augments that inconfiderate credulity, which has turned the active induftry of Mexico and Peru into fuch an improper channel. To this may be imputed the flerder progrefs which they have made during two centuries and a half, either in useful manufactures, or in thofe lucrative branches of cultivation, which furnish the colonies of other nations with their ftaple commodities. In comparison with the precious metals, every bounty of nature is fo much defpifed, that this extravagant idea of their va lue has mingled with the idiom of the language in America, and the Spaniards fettled there denominate a country, rich, not from the fertility of its foil, the abundance of its crops, or the exuberance of its paftures, but on account of the minerals which its mountains contain. In queft of these, they abandon the delightful plains of Peru and Mexi co, and refort to barren and uncomfortable regions, where they have built fome of the largest towns which they poffefs in the New World. As the activity and enterprife of the Spaniards originally took this direction, it is. now fo difficult difficult to bend them a different way, that although, from various caules, the gain of working mines is much decreased; the fafcination continues, and almost every perfon, who takes any active part in the commerce of New Spain or Peru, is ftill engaged in fome adventure of this kind. Obfervations on the Formation of Iceiflands; and on the Exiftence of a Southern Continent. Extracted from Cook's Voyage. HAD circuit all tend to prove that there must be land to the fouth; and for my perfuafion that this fouthern land mult lie, or extend, fartheft to the north, oppofite to the southern Atlantic and Indian oceans, I have already affigned, fome reafons; to which I may add the greater degree of cold experienced by us in thefe feas, than in the fouthern Pacific ocean under the fame parallels of latitude. In this laft ocean, the mercury in the thermometer feldom fell fo low as the freezing point, till we were in 60° and upwards; whereas in the others, it fell as low in This was I of the now erade che in the latitude of 54° high latitude, and traversed it in fuch a manner as to leave not the leaft room for the poffibility of there being a continent, unless near the pole, and out of the reach of navigation. By twice vifiting the tropical fea, I had not only fettled the fituation of fome old difcoveries, but made there many new ones, and left, I conceive, very little more to be done even in that part. Thus I flatter myself, that the intention of the voyage has, in every refpect, been fully anfwered; the fouthern hemifphere fufficiently explored; and a final end put to the fearching after a fouthern continent, which has, at times, ingroffed the attention of fome of the maritime powers, for near two centuries paft, and been a favourite theory amongst the geographers of all ages. That there may be a continent, or large tract of land, near the pole, I will not deny; on the contrary, I am of opinion there is; and it is probable that we have feen a part of it. The exceffive cold, the many islands and valt floats of ice, certainly owing to there being a greater quantity of ice, and to its extending farther to the north, in these two feas than in the South Pacific; and if ice be firft formed at, or near land, of which I have no doubt, it will follow that the land alfo extends farther north. The formation or coagulation of ice-iflands has not, to my know. ledge, been thoroughly investigated. Some have fuppofed them to be formed by the freezing of the water at the mouths of large rivers, or great cataracts, where they accumulate till they are broken off by their own weight. My obfer. vations will not allow me to acquiefce in this opinion; because we never found any of the ice which we took up incorporated with earth, or any of its produce, as I think it must have been, had it been coagulated in land waters. It is a doubt with me, whether there be any rivers in thefe countries. It is certain, that we faw not a river, or ftream of water, on all the coat of Georgia, nor on any of the fouthern lands. Nor did we ever see a stream of water run from any of the ice-islands. How are we then to fuppofe that there are large rivers? The vallies are covered, many fathoms deep, with everlifting fnow; and, at the fea, they terminate in icy cliffs of valt height. It is here where the iceislands are formed; not from ftreams of water, but from confolidated fnow and fleet, which is, almoft continually, falling or drifting down from the mountains, efpe- . cially in the winter, when the froft must be intenfe. During that feafon, the ice cliffs muft fo accumulate as to fill up all the bays, be they ever fo large. This is a fact which cannot be doubted, as we have feen it fo in fummer. Thefe cliffs accumulate by continual falls of fnow, and what drifts from the mountains, till they are no longer able to fupport their own weight; and then large pieces break off, which we call ice-iflands. Such as have a flat even furface, must be of the ice formed in the bays, and before the flat vallies; the others, which have a tapering unequal furface, must be formed on, or under, the fide of a coast compofed of pointed rocks and precipices, or fome fuch uneven furface. For we cannot fuppofe that fnow alone, as it falls, can form, on a plain furface, luch as the fea, fuch a variety of high peaks and hills, as we faw on many of the ice ifles. It is certainly more reafonable to believe that they are formed on a coast whofe furface is fomething fimilar to theirs. I have observed that all the ice-iflands of any extent, and before they begin to break to pieces, are terminated by perpendicular cliffs of clear ice or frozen fnow, always on one or more ore fides, but most generally al round. Many, and thofe of the largest fize, which had a hilly and fpiral farface, fhewed a perpendicular cliff or fide trom the fummit of the highest peak down to its bafe. This to me was a convincing proof, that thefe, as well as the flat ifles, must have broken off from fubftances like themselves; that is, from fome large tract of ice. When I confider the vast quan. tity of ice we faw, and the vicinity of the places to the pole where it is formed, and where the degrees of longitude are very fmall, I am led to believe that thefe ice cliffs extend a good way into the fea, in fome parts, elpecially in fuch as are fheltered from the violence of the winds. It may even be doubted if ever the wind is violent in the very high lati tudes. And that the fea will freeze over, or the fnow that falls upon it, which amounts to the fame thing, we have inftances in the northern hemifphere. The Baltic, the Gulph of Saint Laurence, the Straits of Belle- ifle, and many other equally large feas, are frequently frozen over in winter. Nor is this at all extraordinary; for we have fo nd the degree of cold at the furface of the fea, even in fummer, to be two degrees below the freezing point; confequently nothing kept it from freezing but the falts it contains, and the agitation of its furface. Whenever this last ceaseth in winter, when the froft is fet in, and there comes a fall of fnow, it will freeze on the furface as it falls, and in a few days, or perhaps in one night, form fuch a sheet of ice as will not be easily broken up. Thus Thus a foundation will be laid for it to accumulate to any thicknefs by falls of fnow, without its being at all neceffary for the fea water to freeze. It may be, by this means, thefe vatt floats of low ice we find in the fpring of the year are formed, and which, after they break up, are carried by the currents to the north. For, from all the obfervations I have been able to make, the currents every where, in the high latitudes, fet to the north, or to the N. E. or N. W.; but we have very feldom found them confiderable. It this imperfect account of the formation of thefe extraordinary floating islands of ice, which is written wholly from my own obfervations, does not convey fome ufeful hints to an abler pen, it will, however, convey fome idea of the lands where they are formed. Lands doomed by nature to perpetual frigidness; never to feel the warmth of the fun's rays; whofe horrible and favage afpect I have not words to defcribe. Such are the lands we have discovered; what then may we expect thofe to be, which lie ftill farther to the Youth? For we may reasonably fuppofe that we have feen the best, as lying mot to the north. If any one fhould have refolution and perfeverance to clear up this point by proceeding farther than I have done, I shall not envy him the honour of the difcovery; but I will be bold to fay, that the world will not be benefited by it. I had, at this time, fome thoughts of revifiting the place where the French difcovery is faid to lie. But then I confidered, that, if they had really made this difcovery, the end would be as fully anfwered as if I had done it myself. We know it can only be an ifland; and if we judge from the degree of cold we found in that latitude, it cannot be a fertile one. Befides, this would have kept me two months longer at fea, and in a tempeftuous latitude, which we were not in a condition to struggle with. Our fails and rigging were fo much worn, that fomething was giving way every hour; and we had nothing left, either to repair or to replace them. Our provifions were in a state of decay, and confequently afforded little nourishment, and we had been a long time without refreshments. My people, indeed, were yet healthy, and would have chearfully gone wherever I had thought proper to lead them; but I dreaded the fourvy laying hold of them, at a time when we had nothing left to remove it. I muft fay farther, that it would have been cruel in me to have continued the fatigues and hardships they were continually expofed to, longer than was abfolutely neceffary. Their behaviour, throughout the whole voyage, merited every indulgence which it was in my power to give them. Animated by the conduct of the officers, they fhewed themselves capable of furmounting every difficulty and danger which came in their way, and never once looked either upon the one or the other, as being at all heightened by our feparation from our confort the Adven ture. All thefe confiderations induced me to lay afide looking for the French difcoveries, and to fleer for the Cape of Good Hope; with a refolution, however, of looking for the Iles of Denia and Marfe veen, which are laid down in Dr. Halley's variation chart in the latitude of 41 S., and about 4° of longitude to the east of the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope. With this view I fteered N. E. with a hard gale at N. W. and thick weather; and on the 25th, at noon, we saw the laft ice-ifland, being at this time in the latitude of 52° 52′ S. longitude 26° 31′ E. Account of feveral Water Spouts obferved in the South Seas by Mr. Forfter. IN N the afternoon, about four o'clock, we were nearly oppoite Cape Stephens, and had little or no wind. We obferved thick clouds to the S. W. about that time, and faw that it rained on all the fouthern parts of that cape. On a fudden a whitish spot appeared on the fea in that quarter, and a column arofe out of it, looking like a glafs tube; another feemed to come down from the clouds to meet this, and they made a coalition, forming what is commonly called a water-fpout. A little while after we took notice of three other columns, which were formed in the fame manner as the first. The nearest of all thefe was about three miles diftant, and its apparent diameter, as far as we could guefs, might be about feventy fathom at the bafe. We found our thermometer at 56 when this phænomenon first took its rife. The nature of water-fpouts and their caufes being hitherto very little known, we were extremely attentive to mark every little circumfiance attendant on this appearance. Their bafe, where the water of the fea was vio lently agitated, and rofe in a spiral form in vapours, was a broad (pot, which looked bright and yellowish when illuminated by the fun. The column was of a cylindrical form, rather encreafing in width towards the upper extremity. These columns moved forward on the turface of the fea, and the clouds not following them with equal rapidity, they affumed a bent or incurvated fhape, and frequently appeared croffing each other, evidently proceeding in different directions; from whence we concluded, that it being calm, each of these waterfpouts caufed a wind of its own. At last they broke one after another, being probably too much diftended by the difference between their motion and that of the clouds, In proportion as the clouds came nearer to us, the fea appeared more and more covered with thort broken waves, and the wind continually veered all round the compafs, without fixing in any point. We foon faw a fpot on the fea, within two hundred fathom of us, in a violent agitation. The water, in a space of fifty or fixty fathoms, moved towards the centre, and there rifing into vapour, by the force of the whirling motion, afcended in a fpiral form towards the clouds, Some hailftones fell on board about this time, and the clouds looked exceedingly black and louring above us. Directly over the whirlpool, if I may fo call the agitated fpot on the fea, a cloud gradually tapered into a long flender tube, which feemed to defcend to meet the rifing fpiral, and foon united with it into a trait column of a cylindrical form. We could diftinctly obferve the water hurled upwards with the greatest violence |