Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-09-28
THE SEAWEED CONTINENT
Plant and Animal Life Of A Strange
Part Of Globe.
What Is Known Of the Sarsasso Sea- Crea,
Mass Of Floating Things.

| The currents OF the sea, its Winds an
| tides, it's islands and ice foes. ANNA
and vegetable life. and unexploret
regions Of both north and south. hav.
| from time "immemorial furnished sub
| jects of never ending interest to In,
| scientific and those filled with the low,
of adventure. Among the mysteriou.
| forms of nature concerning which
knowledge has been sparingly diffuset
is the Sargasso sea. 1t will be founl
| on the maps of the world, marked or
| the Atlantic ocean and located due
| east of the southern portion of The
| United States, about midway between
the eastern boundaries of the Ameri.
can continent and the Azores. II is
a sea floating upon a sea. From the
meager book knowledge upon the
subject it is ascertained that it has no,
changed its relative position since tho
| time it was first discovered by Column
bus on his first westward VOYAGE OF
discovery.
The Sargasso sea is a great mass of
seaWced, miles and miles in extent.
and of such density that n%avigators
report that the progress of vessels
through it has been greatly retarded.
The fact that it has held its present
position for such an i%ncalculable length
Of time. and the fact that vegetable
life in the form of gulfweed, together
with all manner of driftwood, is al
ways found there, calm and undis-
turbed, are u~naccounted for by those
who have theoriZed upon the subject
rs resulting from the set of the ocean
49, ,rJ,,zb ryt~nAn .n,,- "a -.
ing it. as it were the centre OF a vast
circle.
NJ. f. Maury, a lieutenant in the
United States navy, writing on the
subject of physical geography, back in
1888, touches pom the Sargasso sea,
md speaks of it in this manner:
Midway in the Atlantic, in the TRAN
sular space occupied between the
azores. Canary and the Cape Verde
Stands. is the ~Sargasso Sea. covering
IN area equal in extent to the Missis-
'ippi Valley. 1t is thickly matted over
With gulfWeed (Fueus natans.) To the
we at a distance it seems substantial
nough to walk on"
OF the botanical and animal life eX-
sting in and about thism mysterious body
comparatively little is known. Gulf
weed predominates. 1t lives upon air
md water having no connection with
he soil. In fact, from the great depth.
h ocean at this point, any other
orm of vegetable life but water plants
would be out of the question. OF this
pecies there are only a few varieties.
fucus natans and Fucus nodosus are
%'otanical names applied to gulfweed
f the Sargasso sea. The course of the.
,hallanSer in 1913. from the Ber-
nudas eastward. skirting the edge Of.
he ~SargaSso sea. passed through the
\zores and thence to Madeira. OBJ
ervations We're made daily by the
british scientists on board. The winds.
urrents, surface appearance of the
alter. animal and vegetable life. We're
III subjected to scrutiny and observa-
ion. Sir Wyville Thomson. one of the
arty. wrote an account of the voyage
which vas published under the title
voyage of the Challenger In this
york is found a brief description of the
esuits of their examination of the pc
uliarities ofthe Sargasso sea. He says:
some gulf weed was passed from
lime TO time of the species fucus, either
fucus nodosus or a very nearly allied
orIn, evidently living and growing and
anticipating in the wandering and pc
agile habits Of -sargassun. The float
ng islands of gulfWeed with which we
lad now become very familiar. as we
ad now nearly made the circuit of the
argaSSO sea, are usually found from a
ouplc of feet to two or three yards
Il diameter, sometimes. much larger.
We have seen. on one or two occasions
eds, acres in extent. and such eX-
'anses are probably more frequent
ear the centre of its area of distribu-
ion. They consist of a single layer of
eathery lunches of the weed (Sargas-
UNI bacciferum.1 not matted, but
ioating free of n another, only Suf-
iciently entangled for the mass to
,eep together. Each tuft las a central
'rown, threadlike branching stem
tudded around with air vesicles on
hort stalks, most of these near the
entire dead and coated with a beauti-
ii netted. white p%olyzoon. After n
lille vesicles so incrusted break off,
nd where there is much gulfweed the
ca is studded with these separated
title white balls. A short way. from
he centre. toward the end of the
ranches, the Serrated. WilloW-like
eaves of the plant begin at first brown
nd rigid, but becoming further on in
he branch paler, more delicate, and
more active in their vitality. The
1oung fresh leaves and the air vesicles
ire usually ornamented with st.lkel
asses of a campanularia. The general
'olor of the mass of weeds is thus oliveI
n all its shades, but the golden olive
If the young and growing branches
realty predominates. This color.
however, is greatly broken up by the
i~elicate branching of the weed, blotched
With the vivid white of the incrusted
)olyZoon. and riddled with refectionsI
rom the bright-blue ate cleaning
through the spaces in the network"
Some of the form of life existing in
Sargasso sea were observed by the
party on board the Challenger. These
observations We're restricted to the
surface inhabitants and disclose some
and interesting facts. On
his point Sir Wyville Thomson says:
These islands have inhabitants pecu-
liar to them. and l know of no more
perfect example of protective resem-
olance than that which is shown in the
sulfweed fauna. Animals drifting
about on the surface Of the sea with