66 HIMILCO. 



which would be required for a commercial voyage. Nor 

 can I lay any stress on the statement that Himilco's ves- 

 sels were "impeded" by the monsters of the deep. What 

 Avienus really said was, as Sir Cornewall Lewis admits in 

 another passage, that while becalmed and lying in a helpless 

 state, the ships were "surrounded by marine monsters/'* 

 It might fairly be argued that whales were in all probability 

 more numerous on our coasts in ancient times than they are 

 now ; the great mammalia of the sea, as well as those of the 

 land, have given way before the overwhelming power of man. 

 But it is unnecessary to urge this hypothesis ; the great mon- 

 sters of the deep have in all ages appealed strongly to the 

 imagination of mankind, and no poet would fail to allude to 

 them in describing the dangers which beset those " who go 

 down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great 

 waters." 



The third point alluded to by Sir Cornewall Lewis, so far 

 from throwing any doubt on the veracity of Himilco, appears 

 rather to be an argument in his favour. His ships, he says, 

 or at least Avienus says for him, were " surrounded by sea- 

 weed." Where was he when this took place ? All that 

 we can say in answer to this question is, that he sailed 

 through the Pillars of Hercules into the Atlantic Ocean, 

 and we know that a few days' sail in this direction would 

 have brought him to the "Mare di Sargasso," a sea which 

 has actually taken its name from the quantity of seaweed 

 (Sargasso) growing in it. Sir C. Lewis says, "The notion 

 of remote seas being impassable by ships, either from their 

 shoals, or from the obstacles to navigation produced by the 

 semi-fluid and muddy properties of the water, frequently 

 recurs among the ancients ;" and it is true, no doubt, that 

 statements of this kind are made by many ancient writers, 

 as, for instance, by Herodotus, Plato, Scylax, and even Aris- 



* See Appendix. 



