The bee., 1883-12-22
Wonders Of the Ocean.
THE sARGAsSO SEA.

There is a sea in the middle of the
ocean! Astonishing as the statement
sounds, it is literally true. The limits of
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, OH his first VOYAGE,
had got some distance to the westward
of the Canary Islands, he was amazed
one morning to find his ships in an un-
uuiating meadow. As far as ne could
see, the water was covered with green
ish-yellow plant, which appropriated
the surface of the sea as thoroughly
and ehectually as water-lIlies cover
pond. The wind was light but steady :;
there were not any birds to indicate the
proximity of land, neither was there any
apparent cause for such a collection of
weed. The sailors, already scared 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 infallible proof of their inn
minent destruction. The Almighty. they
said, was angry at their impious attempts
to pry into His secrets in the west, and
had given them over to the devil, who
was causing wind to blow that would
forever prevent their return 70 Spain,
and now had brought them into a snare
such as sailors most dread-shallows ex-
tending too far beyond the land to allow
Of ships or men being saved The com.
mander could not explain the sight he
saw, and might have thought with his
men that the weed was the cast-off cloth.
ing of some dangerous rocks which lay
a 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 getting no bottom, till,
in few days they drew clear of weed
and came where the broad ocean was
all around them again, unencumbered
5y aught but the ships of tn explorera
Ever since the day Columbus saw the
weed, and probably for thousands of
years before he saw it, the Sargasso Sea
such is the name of the Weedy sea
has existed. Its boundaries may be in
dicated by tracing a triangle, of which
the three corners are represented by the
Azores, the Canaries, and Cape de Verde.
Within those limits the sea is still bot
tor.less, and is clothed on its surface
With garment of vegetable material, 80
thick as to rerard the progress of vessels
sailing through it. 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
America, the Cape, etc., must needs pass
through it. Sometimes a great storm,
proceeding from some point outside the
charmed triangle, causes its effects to be
felt within the triangle, and scatters the
weed more or less out of bounds. But
usually there is placid condition of
things in the Sargasso Sea; the wind is
light, the sky is clear, the water never
RACES, and, unless such storm as has
been mentioned should disturb the
wonted calmness of the sea, the surface,
over several degrees of latitude and lon-
gitude, is covered, as in the day when
Columbus saw it, with the weed Sargas-
sum, which springs from an apparently
inexhaustible source.