The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-09-20
SAHlARlAS O TIL lie SEA
| mere Are Watery Wastes as Dreary
rs Any to Be Found on Land
s Immense Solitudes.

There Are $NNatery Wastes as Dreary
va Any to Be Found on Land
ssBEs Immense solitudes- Il. tS5.
ssa Oceans, like continents, have their
deserts. On the high seas there are
vast spaces whose waves have never
been parted by the PROV of sailing
vessel or$l dashed by the propeller of
steamer, immense solitudes where the
zap Of a sail IS never heard nor Il ne
sstrident cry Of a sirent; veritable
deserts, whose silence is broken only
by the bowling Of the wind and roar
5of waves which have been vainly pur-
suing one another since the day Of
creation, says#.ttLe AIatin. \,
5$ These deserts lie forgotten betwixt
the marrow ocean highways travelled
sby vessels. IN such waste places Of
the sea disabled ship, driven out OF
Its course BY a hurricane, may drift
Tor nj onths, tossed by the ceaseless
ground swell, without being able to
hail assistance; her only chance OF es-
cape is the possibility that some
oceanic current may drag her into
more frequented region.
tits generally supposed that, by rea-
son Of the universal in crease of mari
time traffic the sea is everywhere fur
@rowed by vessels. That is a mistake.
Ocean traffic has grown enormously
during the last half century, but that
Development is due to the substitution
of steam navigation for the old fash
toned employment of sailing vessels.
When the first steamer began to churn
the water with its paddle wheels the
sailing fleets ceased to increase; with
the advent Of the screw propeller they
began to decrease.
The gradual but constant disappear
ancea of sailing ships made the ocean
more ola desert than before. Sailing
vessels had then established routes in
l8accordance with winds, currents and
seasons, the gaps between the routes
ken by outward-bound and home
ward bound ships are often consider
able. borrower, the capricious ele-
n1ents not infrequently played the mis-
8scfliefswith nautical instructions, and
as a result the field of operations for
railways has killed coastwise naviga-
ss1fon-
liner goes straight ahead in defiance
which she plies are great industrial
or commercial centers, whittier come
numberless railways, serving as. pro-
loagations of the lines Of navigation.
Freight cars carry their loads of mer-
chandise to the lesser ports and cities
F.nTst the interior.
he ocean highways are, therefore,
81 a ny thing but numerous. The most ire
II anented& of oceans is the Atlantic.
mart from polar seas we see that in
its northern part there is only one
Desert zone dreary waste of waters
between the routes from Europe to the
ffrlited States or Canada, and those
from Europe to the Antilles. IN the
south, between the routes from South
a rnerica or the Western America coast
aisd the routes from South America,
extends a desert occasionally traversed
nv the steamers of lines from Cape
Town TO Mozambique, which, when
& the coffee season is at it's height in
ii EYra I'll, cross the Atlantic for carsoes
Rio sJaneiro or Santos.
ss The. indian Ocean is frequented only
IN the! north by lines out of India and
y Indo-C1lina, and little in the West
\ I5y liners from Oceanica, which call
Z Colombo and then make straight
Tor Australia. Two lines. each with
steamer a month. follow slender
Iarle from Australia to Cape Town
The Pacific is the Sahara OF great
seas Saving only the steamships
i from the Far East TO California and
"a Rritist Columbia. a line from Sydney
III TO San Francisco and a onehorse line
with sailings four or FIVE times &
4 Yea n between Tahiti and the United
StaSss-saye for these mere ribbon-l!ke
s4reaks the Pacific is desert. Only q
few native canoes ply daringly from
island to island in archipelagoes gir'
round with coral reefs-Veritable
ocean graveyards. the terror OF sea
& faring men.
How many ships OF which we have
received no tidings and OF which not
so much as drifting spar has ever
been picked up, have been dragged ny
Irresistible winds into those solitUdes