4 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



While the sargassum may be falsely reported 

 to have been the weed that clogged a thousand 

 ships, yet it undoubtedly played a most import- 

 ant part in the discovery of America. Mutiny 

 among the crews of Columbus was too much of 

 a menace for the comforting daily sight of drift- 

 ing vegetation not to be a very real mental 

 anodyne. 



"They were astonied" writes an old translator 

 of Columbus' journal, "when they saw the sea, in 

 a manner, covered with green and yellow weeds, 

 which seemd to have been lately washed away from 

 some rock or island. This phenomenon gave them 

 reason to conclude that they were near some land, 

 especially as they perceived a live crab floating 

 among the weeds." And a week later they saw 

 "a tropicbird and such a quantity of weeds as 

 alarmed the crew who began to fear that their 

 course would be impeded." 



When rumor and legend and travellers' tales 

 need renewed basis of fact they always turn again 

 to the Sargasso Sea. The supposed graveyard of 

 ships has ever been the incubator of fancies. The 

 great heart of the Atlantic has been credited with 

 powers which make of it almost a sentient mon- 

 ster, — it can draw to it ships and men, can hold 

 them indefinitely, spew them forth, or pull them 

 down to black, soul-crushing depths. Its vegeta- 

 tion is as dense as baled hay and has the holding 

 power of an octopus tentacle! 



It is a terrible thing to me to destroy beliefs and 

 legends. Knowing however, that there were no 



