Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery

While this was going on, I swept the horizon with my spy glass, and soon discovered in the S. W. directly to wind-ward, a low range of broken land. The moment I fixed my glass upon it, every eye was turned in that direction: some sprang into the rigging, some ran to the mast head, and the joyful cry of land ho! land! dispelled the mutinous disposition of the crew. Sixty-five fathoms, soft ooze, was the report of soundings; a delightful indication of an extensive body of land, with large rivers depositing their sediment on the bottom of the deep. We soon approached, and observed the coast to range about S. E. and N. W. as far as the eye could reach from the mast head. I called the attention of my officers to this circumstance, and observed to them that the broad opening which we had found in the 'icy hoop' could now be easily accounted for. We had noticed that the prevailing wind was from the S. W. with strong gales, the influence of which was continually forcing the ice to the eastward; but this body of land, ranging from the S. E. to the N. W. stopped the ice to the westward of it, while that to the eastward was driven away, leaving a clear passage to leeward of the land. From the westerly winds prevailing all the year round, this must always be the case, unless the 'immutable laws of matter and motion,' and the relation between 'cause and effect' should be changed.