I am new to the site and currently performing my own investigation into the reality of the world. I am not basing my thoughts or questions on anyone else's beliefs or opinions simply on what I can find for myself. It seems that one of the major things given as proof, from both sides, is the 2nd voyage of Captain Cook where he searches for a southern continent. All agree that his log shows a total journey of approximately 60000 miles and taking over 3 years. Where everyone diverges is on what this means. Those on the globe side state that his locating of the polar ice pack, exploration, and subsequent assumption that it must be attached to a land mass somewhere as proof of the Antarctic continent and its glacial state. Those on the flat earth side look at the total distance listed as covered and seem to assign all of that to a journey along the Antarctic ice. When using distance or time spent exploring, neither side seems to consider the distance sailed simply to get back and forth from the southern reaches or the time spent, nearly a year and a half alone, exploring the islands in the Southern Pacific. I have asked other sites how discovery of an ice shelf proves an underlying continent and therefore shows a basically globular earth and am going through the multitude of explanations ranging from the absurd to those using advanced calculus and physics. My question here is different and based on what I have read regarding the possibility of an Ice/Rock Wall circling the globe. Using the information from Captain Cooks log books: Given a total journey of 62,000 miles and given that the most direct paths were used without any natural deviation due to tides, currents, wind etc; to go in a nearly direct path (without any exploration of any kind) from Plymouth to Cape Town-Cape Town to New Zealand-New Zealand to Tierra del Fuego-Tierra del Fuego to Cape Town-Cape Town to Plymouth covers about 31,000 miles; exploration of the South Sea Islands (too numerous to list here) that would have covered a minimum of 9,000 miles; we are left with approximately 22,000 miles of general exploration distance. Does this amount give enough to show that the Earth is flat given that at the end of each southern explorative journey Captain Cook returned to the same area of New Zealand?