8 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



the old growth sinking to the bottom, while the 

 newer sprigs and bladders rose and floated buoy- 

 antly at the surface. This would seem to account 

 for the great abundance of wholly new heads which 

 I observed in the heart of the area, quite devoid of 

 any down-pulling old growths. I have no doubt 

 that in a vast number of cases the sprouts are auto- 

 matically detached at the point of juncture, either 

 by the turbulence of the waves or after the whole 

 has been pulled under water for some distance. 

 That there is a certain amount of constant replen- 

 ishment from coastal plants there is no doubt, but I 

 think this is of minor importance in the mainten- 

 ance of the Sargasso Sea as a whole. 



The great age of the Sargasso Sea is attested 

 by the specially adapted organisms, — fish, crus- 

 taceans, worms, anemones — which inhabit it, while 

 the extreme reluctance of these to leave the shelter 

 of even a tiny frond is a powerful argument against 

 any wholesale, rapid, annual replacement of the 

 oceanic weed-drift by fresh supplies from shore. 

 Although we seemed to have arrived in the winter 

 of the sargassum fauna, yet we collected 95 per- 

 cent of the known Crustacea and other groups in 

 proportion. 



An unexpected coincidence is infinitely more ex- 

 citing and interesting than the fulfillment of a pre- 

 conceived plan: Hence my delight at discovering 

 that my most interesting days in the Sargasso Sea 

 occurred at the same spot in mid-ocean as the most 

 dramatic points of Columbus' first voyage. 



