A great quantity of floating ice appears in the northern sea, especially at some distance from land. It comes from the Tartarian sea into that of Nova Zembla, and other parts of the Frozen Ocean. I have been assured by people of credit, that an English Captain, named Monson, instead of seeking a passage between the northern land to go to China, directed his course strait to the pole, and had approached it within two degrees; that in this course he had found an open sea, without any ice, which proves that the ice is formed near land, and never in open sea; for if we should suppose, against all probability, that it might be cold enough at the pole to freeze over the surface of the sea, it is still not conceivable how these enormous floating mountains of ice could be formed, if they did not find a fixed point against land, from whence afterwards they were loosened by the heat of the sun. The two vessels which the East India Company sent, in 1739, to discover land in the South Seas, found ice in the latitude of 47 and 48 degrees, but this ice was not far from shore, that being in sight although they were unable to land. This must have been separated from the adjoining lands of the south pole, and it may be conjectured that they follow the course of some great rivers, which water the unknown land, the same as the Oby, Jenisca, and other great floods, which fall into the North Seas, carry with them the ice, which, during the greatest part of the year, stops up the straits of Waigat, and renders the Tartarian sea unnavigable by this course; whereas beyond Nova Zembla, and nearer the poles, where there are few rivers, and but little land, ice is not so frequently met with, and the sea is more navigable; so that if they would still attempt the voyage to China and Japan by the North Seas, we should possibly, to keep clear from the land and ice, shape our course to the pole, and seek the open seas, where certainly there is but little or no ice; for it is known that salt water can, without freezing, become colder than fresh water when frozen, and consequently the excessive cold of the pole may possibly render the sea colder than the ice, without the surface being frozen: so much the more as at 80 or 82 degrees, the surface of the sea, although mixed with much snow and fresh water, is only frozen near the shore. By collecting the testimonies of travellers, on the passage from Europe to China, it appears that one does exist by the north sea; and the reason it has been so often attempted in vain is, because they have always feared to go sufficiently far from land, and approach the pole.