The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-11-15
The Sargasso Sea.

the sea are as well defined as those of
any other known collection of water; its
characteristics are so special that no one
can mistake them.
When Columbus, on his first voyage,
had sailed some distance to westward of
Canary Islands, he was amazed to find
his ships in an undulating meadow. As
far as he could see, the water was cover
ed with greenish yellow plant, which
appropriated the surface of the sea as
thoroughly and effectively as water lilies
cover pond. The wind was light but
steady; there were not any birds to in
dictate the proximity of land, neither
was there any apparent cause for such a
collection of weed. The sailors, already
frightened by the persistence of the
wind from one quarter (they had got
into the trade winds), looked upon the
weed before them, behind them, and on
either side of them, as an infallible
proof of their imminent destruction.
The Almighty, they said, was angry at
their lmplous attempts to pry into His
secrets in the West and had given them
over to the devil, who was causing q
wind to blow that would forever prevent
their return to Spain, and now had
brought them into snare such as sailors
most dread-shallows extending too far
beyond the land to allow of ships O.,
men being saved. The commander
could not explain the sight he saw, and
might have thought with his men that
the weed was the cast off clothing of
some dangerous rock, which lay short
distance down, ready to tear and rend
them. The deep sea lead line was hove.
but no bottom was found. The ships
kept on their westerly course, still
sounding and still finding no bottom,
till, in a few days, they sailed away from
the weed and came where the broad
ocean was clear again, unencumbered
by aught but the ships of the explorers.
Ever since the time Columbus saw the
weed, and probably for thousands of
years before he saw it, the Sargasso, or
CLASSY Sea, has existed. Maury states
that observations extending back for
fifty years assures US that its position
has not been altered within that time"
AS to its cause, Maury says: If bits
of cork or chaff or any floating substance
be put into basin and circular mo-
tion be given to the water, all the light
substance will be found crowding togeth-
er near the centre of the pool, where
there is the least motion. just such q
basin is the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf
Stream, and the Sargasso Sea is the cen
tire of the whirl."
This sea lies midway of the Atlantic
ing a triangle, of which the three cor
ners are represented by the Azores, the
Canaries and the Cape de Verde Islands.
One authority locates it between 20 de-
grees and 65 degrees w. longitude, and
from Is degrees to % degrees n. lati-
tude. In Lippincotts Gazetteer it is
described as extending ''from the merid-
ian of 30 degrees W. to the Bahama Isl
ands, between the parallels of 20 degrees
and As degrees n. The area of this sea
is given as upwards of 260,0 900 square
mile, or nearly equal in extent to the
Mississippi Valley. Within these limits
the sea is still, bottomless, and is cloth
ed on its surface with q garment of
vegetable material, so thick as to retard
the progress of vessels sailing through
it. To the eye, at little distance, it
seems substantial enough to walk upon.
Its appearance is sometimes compared
to a flooded meadow, This seaweed is
called Fucus natans, Sargassum or gulf
weed. 1t was formerly supposed to have
been torn from the bottom of the ocean
but there is now good reason to suppose
that it propagates in the sea, and vege-
tates floating. 1t evidently springs
from an inexhaustible source. Steamers
avoid it when they can do so, because of
the fouling Of their screws and paddles
by the weed; but sailing vessels outward
bound to the West Indies, South Ameri-
ca, the Cape, ETC., must needs pass
through it.
The statement is made in Cornell's
Physical Geography, "trees and plants
from the banks of the Amazon, Orinoco
and the Mississippi, disengaged from
the Gulf Stream, in which they have
drifted for hundreds of miles, here at
last find rest"
Sometimes great storm proceeding
from some point outside the charmed
triangle, causes its effect to be felt with
in the triangle. and scatters the weed
more or less out of bounds. Patches of
the weed are always to he found floating
down the Gulf Stream from the Mexi-
can Sea. Usually there is placid con-
dition of things in the Sargasso Sea; the
wind is light, the sky is clear, the wa
ter never RACES, and unless such a storm
as has been mentioned should disturb
the wonted calmness of the sea, the sur
face presents the same appearance as on
the day when Columbus saw it-Woon-
socket Patriot.
MEDICINE IN THE TINE OF PHARAOH.
The well-known professor, DIR. Ebers,
of the University of Leipsic, during his
recent stay at Thebes, obtained a valua-
BILE papyrus roll of the time of the
Pharaohs, containing the complete med
ical system of the priests, for the priests
were also doctors in those days, and
mingled medicine, magic, and religious
observances in a remarkable manner
If the patient happened to get well,
they took all the credit; but if not, the
gods got all the blame-the mans time
to die had come. Thus mems charac-
teristics repeat themselves in all the
stages of the worlds growth. In our
day pious people are apt to say, 1T
pleased Providence to remove" ETC.,
when, if the truth were known, the ply
sician would come in for a share of the
grave responsibility. The papyrus,
though probably written 35 centuries
ago, is in state of perfect preservation.
Not single character of its ITO pages
are missing. Nine of these pages are
devoted tosdiseases of the eye, in the
treatment of which the Egyptians seem
to have been far more skillful than any
other nation of their time. Besides this,
it describes every part of the human
BODY, and the diseases to which it is