o the south for the Straits of Le Maire, seeing on their
way abundance of whales and other large fish of that kind. Among the
rest, they were followed for a whole month by that kind of fish which
is called the _Sea Devil_ by the Dutch sailors, which they took the
utmost pains to catch, but to no purpose. It has a large head, a thick
short body, and a very long tail, like that which painters bestow on
the dragon.

Arriving in the lat. of 55 deg. S. they soon after saw State Island, or
Staten-land, which forms one side of the Straits of Luttaire. The
fury of the waves, and the clashing of contending currents, gave such
terrible shocks to their vessels, that they expected every moment
their yards should have been broken, and their masts to come by the
board. They would gladly have come to anchor, especially on finding
the bottom to be good, but the weather and the sea were so rough that
they durst not. They passed through the straits, which are about ten
leagues long, by six over, with a swiftness not to be expressed, owing
to the force and rapidity of the current. After getting through, this
current, together with the westerly winds, carried them a great way
from the coast of America; and, that they might be sure to sail free
of Cape Horn, they sailed as high as the lat. of 62 deg. 30' S. For three
weeks together, they sustained the most dreadful gusts of a furious
west wind, accompanied with hail and snow, and the most piercing
frost. While enveloped in thick mists, they were apprehensive of being
driven by the extreme violence of the winds upon mountains of ice,
where they must inevitably have perished.

Whenever the weather was in any degree clear or serene, they had
scarcely any night; for, being in the middle of January, 1722, the
summer was then in its height, and the days at their utmost length.

These mountains of ice, of which they were so much afraid, are certain
proofs that the southern countries extend quite to the pole, as well
as those under the north; for, without question, these vast hills of
ice cannot be produced in the sea, nor formed by the common force of
cold. It must therefore he concluded, that they are occasioned by the
sharp piercing winds blowing out of the mouths of large rivers.[2] It
is no less certain, that the currents discerned in this ocean must all
proceed from the mouths of large rivers, which, rolling down from
a high continent, fall with such impetuosity into the sea, as to
preserv