feffed and if we have got what they have loft, it is natural to think that the first object would be, to make a proper improvement of those milder regions already in our power; great part of which has been, till lately, and much ftill remains, a terra incognita to us; inftead of letting the itch of discovery scatter us over the globe; to the weakening of our ftrength in every part, especially in draining the resources of the Mother Country.

Such confiderations, however, belong rather to a superior department; but the reflexion was involuntarily excited by the performance now before us. The compiler, after stimulating his countrymen to the prosecution of discoveries to the fouthward, from temporal views, proceeds to urge them from motives of piety. Let us not forget here, fays he, that these distant and extended regions are peopled with myriads of our fellow creatures, to whom our holy religion is utterly unknown. And what must his praise be, who fhall prove an happy inftrument in the hands of the divine Providence, to carry into thofe unknown regions, the pure and unadulterated truths of chriftianity, unmixed with Popish fuperftitions, and unftained by the bloody rigours of a Portugueze inquifition. Surely this important confideration is enough to awake and inspirit us to the attempt; but when to this is joined the attractive charm of prefent gain, we must acknowlege, that we have here united the two ftrongest motives that can prompt man to action.'-Were piety alone concerned, there is much of that good work wherein to employ our miffionaries upon the continent of North America; the natives of which have furely a prior claim to their remembrance, before they travel fouthward.-But as our author is well aware, it is neceffary that the profpect of present gain, hould awaken and infpirit their pious labours; and indeed if we review the generality of the miffions that have hitherto been fent among the Indians of the east or weft, a regard for their fouls has been but a fecondary motive. It remained for the poor infatuated Herrnhutters to establish a mission in Greenland.

The facts brought to support the facility of making discoveries to the fouthward, appear, though curious in themselves, inconclufive as to the point to be established:

In the course of his remarks on thofe mountains of ice, which are thought to impede all navigation in the very high latitudes, our Editor obferves, that these prodigious mountains of ice seem to prove, that there are certain great continents in thofe quarters of the globe. This is the opinion of Roggewein, who had carefully examined this queftion. In fact, we find by experience, that in lakes and ponds the ice begins firft to form next the edges, and fo extends itself towards the middle, and the more the water is agitated, the

flower

flower this progreffion is. Thus it will follow, that the greater extent of coaft there is, the more ice there will be; and, on the other hand, the more ice we find at fea, the more land may we expect to discover. The fea never freezes but in bays, and along the coafts, but our beft navigators affure us that it does not freeze far out at fea, even in the neighbourhood of the Poles. The agitation, depth, and faltness of the water preserves it from this concretion, which takes hold of it near the fhores, where it is mixed with a great quantity of fresh water, the produce of the inland rivers. Now the existence of these large rivers neceffarily fuppofes a continent through which they pals, and where they are formed. Thus the Black fea, which is narrow, and not very falt, from the many large rivers that fall into it on all fides, freezes almost every winter, while those parts of the main ocean, that lie a thousand leagues nearer the Poles, never freeze. Wherever there are few rivers falling into the fea, there lefs ice is feen; as we find beyond Nova Zembla, very near the north Pole. Yet in the ftrait of Weygatz, tho' on this fide of Nova Zembla, we find vaft quantities of ice. The whole coaft of Tartary is covered over with fhoals of ice, proceeding from the many large rivers which fall into the fea thereabouts, while the fhores of Norway are pretty free, though in a higher latitude; because the run of the mountains in that country hinders the fall of the rivers towards the north fea, and determines their course to the fouthward. Thus it appears from experience, that large pieces of ice are never found at any great diftance from land; and, on the other hand, they may be confidered as evident figns of a continent, on the fhores of which they must have been originally formed, at the mouths of rivers, or in deep bays. Thus the great pieces of ice found about Cape Circumcifion, even when the fun is near the tropic of Capricorn, ftrengthens our conjecture, that there must be, near to the fouth Pole, great continents, and high lands, whence large rivers run, in which are formed these icy mountains; in the fame manner as we find it to be in the oppofite hemifphere. As the ice-mountains generally melt in the north feas about the end of July or the beginning of Auguft, fo they must diffolve in the antarctic hemifphere about February; becaufe, at that season there being almoft no night, the continuance of the fun on their horizon produces a very great effect, notwithstanding the obliquity of his rays, for the fame reafon that we fometimes find the thermometer rife higher in Sweden and at Petersburg, than under the line. This heat must be more fenfible in the Antarctic regions, where the fummer is hotter than in our hemisphere. It is alfo probable, that the great fogs which Bouvet complains of, proceed from the vapours exhaled by the fun, in melting these icy mountains. And in fact, this navigator tells us, that

they

they were diffipated about the 20th of January. Thus it follows, that the best time for coming into the fouth latitudes, would be a month or fix weeks after the folftice of Capricorn; it being probable, that, for the fame reafon the cold in winter is greater than on our fide, the heat in fummer must be stronger, as we actually find it in the north feas; where the fun dets with fuch vigour, even in lat. 80, and 82, as to melt the pitch on the fides of the vellels. Linfchoten affures us, that being in the ftraits of Weygatz the laft day of July, he was told by the Samoieds on that coaft, that in ten or twelve days afterwards' the ice in the ftraits would be all gone, though it was then quite blocked up with it. And in fact, on repaffing thefe ftraits the 13th of Auguft he found not the leaft veftige of it; fo quickly do these huge maffes diffolve, after they once begin to

thaw.

We pretend not to affirm, after all, that there may not be found particular places in thefe high latitudes, rendered inacceffible by these maffes of ice, which, even after being separated from the coaft, may float in the open fea a long while before they are quite diffolved. By length of time they lose their whitenefs, and become blue, and fometimes clear and transparent, like cryftal. It has been found, that these icy mountains often change their place, blocking up coafts now that were formerly acceffible. Thus the east coast of Greenland, where the Danifh vessels used to go every year, to traffic with the inhabitants, is now quite fhut up. Forbifher's ftraits, in which he failed 180 years ago, is now no longer navigable. Thofe that go to that country now, muft approach it on the weft.

Our French author quotes fomething fimilar to this, which has happened in that chain of the Alps called Mont-Maudit, over which there was once a paffage into Piedmont. But, by the continued increase of the ice on this mountain, the paffage is now quite filled up, and the mafs of ice has rifen so as to cover an old castle there to the very top. This vaft mafs is now become blue like that near the Poles. This may ferve to account for fome changes in the temperature of the air in these climates, by the gradual augmentation of those icy mountains. Perhaps too, where thefe fields of ice lie low, they may be, in time, covered with earth; and fomething of this fort feems actually to have happened in Nova Zembla, where Wood tells us, that, after digging two feet in the earth, he found a ftratum of solid ice, as hard as marble itself.

But if thefe obfervations are made ufe of to prove, that, granting the existence of large continents towards the Antarctic Pole, fuch lands will nevertheless remain ufelefs, from the barriers of ice prohibiting all access to them; we anfwer, That fuch barriers are only local: for in no part of the globe do we

find, that these polar continents are, on all fides, fhut up. Thus Spitsbergen has been vifited yearly, though very near the Artic Pole; and the weft of Greenland is now acceffible, though the eaft is not. It has been already obferved, that it is the great rivers and deep bays that furnish thofe maffes of ice, which impede navigation; now it is not to be thought, that in that large tract of land, forming the continent of the Terra Auftralis, there fhould not be found lengths of coafts, along which there are few rivers, and confequently no ice to hinder our landing. It is very probable, that, if Bouvet had continued his course along the frozen coafts of the fouth continent, he would have found some entry or other. Befides, experience informs us, that the greatest degree of cold is not always felt in the highest latitude. Thus Hudion tells us, that, after fuffering much by cold in latitude 630 north, he was greatly furprised to find the climate milder in latitude 73°, being then on the east coast of Greenland the twenty-firft of June. That, having advanced to 80, it was warm, though it began afterwards to be very cold in the fame latitude the fecond of July. He actually landed in Greenland in latitude 80° 30', and afterwards advanced to latitude 82o, attempting to go round the north point of that country and fo to return by Davis's ftraits, but found the fea impaffable and the reafon of this, most probably, was, that he kept too near the coafts, inftead of ftanding further into latitudes 86° or 88°, which was the plan of the famous Dutch pilot Barentz. Kok, having gone more than 100 leagues beyond Nova Zembla, tells us, that he found, in latitude 79°, the fea quite open. Gerard de Veer affures us, that he felt lefs cold in latitude 80° than on the coafts of Nova Zembla; and Martens fays the fame. Captain Golden, who made thirty voyages to Greenland, told Charles II. that two Dutch fhips, in the Year 1650, had advanced to 88° north, that is, within one degree of the Pole; where they said they found no ice, but an open and very deep fea, Wood confirms this account by another from a Dutchman, who afferted that he had been quite under the North Pole, where he found the climate as temperate as at Amfterdam, and the fea quite open. We need not wonder at this affertion, when we confider that the fun's rays, though falling very obliquely in that latitude, muft ftill produce a very confiderable degree of heat, from his long continuance above the horizon.'

We would just remark, in general, refpecting the tendency of thefe obfervations, that if in the high latitudes referred to, the greatest cold is experienced by navigators, and the greatest quantity of ice found, in the neighbourhood of land; whatever favourable circumftance this may prove in the navigation of the open feas, confidered merely as a fhorter paffage to other places; it furnishes but an indifferent argument in favour of VOL. XXXV.

U

fettling

fettling on those lands to which the intenseness of the cold is alleged to be confined: notwithstanding the palliation of this objection, as contained in the preceding extract. Moreover though the Dutchman's affertion of his having been quite under the north pole should be admitted, as well as his favourable account of the temperature of the air there; and though the heat is known to be very great about the fummer folftice in very high latitudes; yet from the great obliquity of the folar rays in the polar regions, its power is of too fhort continuance to tempt many visitors to thofe parts, where the many precarious circumftances incident to navigation, render a difappointment of return at the feasonable time, of the most fatal confequence.

As to the voyages themselves, after the compiler has declared in his preface, that to the honour of our country, the best and fureft accounts of the Terra Australis, are deduced from our own navigators, Drake, Narborough, Cavendish, Dampier, and others; he has rather aimed, in this chronological feries, to collect all he was able to find relating to this fubject, than by a judicious felection to present his readers with the best information in a compendious form.

Belifarius. By M. Marmontel, Member of the French Academy. 12mo. 3s. Vaillant.

HOEVER is converfant with the Roman history, can be

LIZARIUS, one of the greateft captains of the age he lived in. After a series of the most important fervices, and glorious atchievements, this illuftrious man became an object of mistrust and jealousy to the emperor Juftinian, who, according to fome hiftorians, ordered his eyes to be put out, and reduced him to beggary. As this is the general opinion, Belifarius is reprefented, in the ingenious performance now before us, as a blind old man. In every other particular, M. Marmontel relies upon the faith of history, and takes Procopius for his guide, who was fecretary to Belifarius during all his wars in Perfia, Africa, and Italy. He pays no regard, however, to that wretched, defamatory libel, which, under the title of Anecdotes or Secret Hiftory, has been attributed to Procopius. Suidas, a writer of the 11th century, is the first who imputes this despicable fatire to Procopius; and upon his authority the notion has been adopted, and paffed current among the learned. Agathias, who was a cotemporary writer, enumerates the compofitions of Procopius, but is totally filent in regard to the Anecdotes.

M. Marmontel thinks it demonftrable, that such an indigefted mais of fcandal, falfhood, and detraction, could never be the

work