Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/138

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(goîtres) which are common among Alpine nations, and are become so habitual that they are looked upon as ornamental. Several persons on board, unacquainted with natural philosophy, were very seriously afraid that the ice, when it began to melt, would burst the casks in which it was packed, not considering that its volume must be greater in its frozen than in its melted state, since it floated on the surface. The Captain, to undeceive them, placed a little pot filled with stamped ice in a temperate cabin, where it gradually dissolved, and in that state took up considerably less space than before. Ocular demonstration always goes farther than the clearest arguments; but reasoning never has less weight than with sailors.

On the 17th, in the forenoon, we crossed the antarctic circle, and advanced into the southern frigid zone, which had hitherto remained impenetrable to all navigators. Some days before this period we had seen a new species of petrel, of a brown colour, with a white belly and rump, and a large white spot on the wings, which we now named the antarctic petrel, as we saw great flights of twenty or thirty of them hereabouts, of which we shot many that unfortunately never fell into the ship. About five o'clock in the afternoon, we had sight of more than thirty large islands of ice a-head, and perceived a strong white reflexion from the sky over the horizon. Soon after we passed through vast quantities of broken ice, which looked