The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-08
THE SEAWEED CONTINENT.
PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE OF A
STRANGE PART OF THE GLOBE.

not Blow Away-Ficld for Scion
tihc investigation.
From the San Francisco Bulletin.
The currents of the sea, its winds and
tides, its islands and ice foes, animal and
vegetable life, and unexplored regions of
both north and south, have from time i'm
memorial furnished subjects of never
ending interest to the scientific and those
filed with the love of adventure. Among
the mysterious forms of nature concern
ing which knowledge has been sparingly
dlffused is the Sargasso sea, 1t viii be
found on the maps of the world, marked
on the Atlantic ocean and located due
east of the southern portion of the United
States, about midway between the eastern
boundaries of the American continent
and, the Azores. 1t is sea floating upon
sea. From the meager book knowledge
upon the subject it is ascertained that it
has not changed its relative position since
the time it was first discovered by Column
bus on his first westward voyage of dis
covery.
The Sargasso sea is a great mass OF sea-
weed, miles and miles in extent, and of
such density that navigators report that
the progress of vessels through it has been
greatly retarded. The fact that it has
held its present position for such an meal
culable length of time, and the fact that
vegetable life in the form of gulfweed,
| together with all manner of driftwood, is
always found there, calm and undisturbed,
are unaccounted for by those who have
| theorized upon the subject as resulting
from the set of the ocean currents which
sweep around it, leaving 1t, as 1t We're,
the center of vast circle.
NJ. F. Maury, a lieutenant in the United
States navy, writing of the subject of
| physical geography, back in 1855, touches
upon the Sargasso sea, and speaks of it
| in this manner: Midway in the Attain
tic, in the triangular space occupied be-
| tween the Azores, Canary and the Cape
| Verde Islands, is the Sargasso sea- COW
ering an area equal in extent to the Missis-
sppi valley. 1t is thickly matted over with
| gufweed (Fucus natans). 10 the eye at
a distance it seems substantial enough to
walk on
OF the botanical and animal life existing
in and about this mysterious body COM
| paratively little is known. Gulfweed pre-
| dominates 1t lives upon airs and water,
having no connection with the soil 1t
| fact, from the great depth of the ocean at
| this point, any other form of vegetable life
| but water plants would be out of the ques-
| ton. OF this species, there are only few
| varieties. Fucus natans and Fucus no
| dosus are botanical names applied to gulf
weed of the Sargasso sea. The course of
the Challenger in 1873, from the Bermudas
| eastward, skirting the edge OF the Sar-
| gasso sea, passed through the Azores and
| thence to Madeira. Observations were
made daily by the British scientists on
board. The winds, currents, surface APP
| pearances of the water, animal and Vege-
| table life, were all subjected to scrutiny
/ ar,A oh va Inn HNhnmEnn
| one of the party wrote an account of the
voyage which was published under the III
| tie voyage of the Challenger" In this
work is found brief description of the re-
suits of their exapinatton of the peculiar
tiles of the Sargasso sea. He says:
Some gulf weed was passed from time
to time of the species fucus, either Fucus
| nodosus or a very nearly allied form, evil
| IDENTIFY living and growing and participant
| ing in the wandering and Pc
| lagc habits of the gulf weed
with which we had now become
very familiar, as we had now nearly made
| the circuit Of the Sargasso sea, are usu-
ally found from a couple of feet to two
| or three yards in diameter, sometimes
| much larger. We have seen, on one or
| two occasions, fields, acres in extent, and
| such expanses are probably more frequent
near the center of it's area of distribution.
| They consist of a single layer of feathery
|
| ferum), not matted, but floating free of
one another, only sufficiently entangled
| for the mass to keep together Each tuft
| has a central brown, thread-like branch
| ing stem studded around with air Vesicles
| on short stalks, most of these near the
| center dead and coated with a beautiful
| Melted white polyzoon. After awhile ves-
icles so incrusted break off, and where
| there is much gulfweed the sea is stud
| ded with these separate little white balls
| A short way from the center, toward the
| end of the branches, the serrated Willow
Hike leaves Of the plant begin, at first
| brown and rigid, but becoming further on
| in the branch paler, more delicate, and
moro active in their vitality. The young
| fresh leaves and the air vesicles are usu-
| ally ornametlted with stalked vases of a
lcampanularia. The general color of the
mass of weeds is thus olive in all its
| shades, but the golden olive of the young
and growing branches greatly predomi-
/ Mates This color, however, is greatly
broken up by the delicate branching of
the weed blotched with the vivid white
of the incrusted polyzoon, and riddled
| with reflections from the bright blue wa
ter cleaning through the spaces in the
/ network sg
Some of the form of life existing in the
| Sargasso sea were observed by the party
on board the Challenger. These observa-
| tions were restricted to the surface in
! habitants and disclose some peculiar and
! interesting facts. on this point Sir Wy
vile Thomson says: THESE islands
have inhabitants peculiar to them, and
l know of no more perfect example of
protective resemblance than that which
| is shown in the gulfweed fauna. Animals
| drifting about on the surface Of the sea
with such a scanty cover as the single
broken layer of seaweed must be ex-
posed to exceptional, danger from the
| sharpeyed seabirds lowering over tlfem
and the hungry fishes searching for prey
beneath, but one and all OF these crea-
| lures initiates in such a wonderful way
| both in form and color, their floating hab-
| itat, and, consequently, one another, that
we can well imagine their deceiving both
| birds and fishes.
Among the most curious OF the gulf
! weed animals is the grotesque little fish,
| antcnnarius marmoratus, which finds its
nearest ally in the fishing frog U1ophlus
| piscatorius) often thrown up on the coast
OF Britain and conspicuous for the dis
proportionate size Of its head and Jaws
| and for its general ugllness and rapacity
| None of the gulfweed antennari which we
| have found have been more than fifty
| millimetres in length, and we are stll