SARGASSO WEEDS AND WAVES 39 



most of our deep-sea hauls, passed by. He paused, 

 glanced at the victim, and remarking casually to 

 no one in particular, "Well, thank God, somebody's 

 caught a visible fish," he moved on down the deck. 



"Those on the Caravel Pinta" says Co- 

 lumbus, "Saw a Reed and a Log, and They 

 ALSO Picked up a Stick Which Appeared 



TO HAVE BEEN CaRVED WITH AN IrON ToOL, A 



Piece of Cane, a Plant Which Grows on 

 Land, and a Board. The Crew of the Nina 

 SAW other Signs of Land." 



Such were the signs which cheered the Great 

 Navigator and his men and made them feel that 

 land must be somewhere there below the everlast- 

 ing western horizon. The same night, in the dark- 

 ness, the vibrations from a tiny light were detected 

 by the keen eyes of the Admiral himself — the first 

 direct contact with the New W^orld. Wlien we 

 were twelve hundred miles out in the Atlantic, 

 close to Columbus' route, I stood one evening alone 

 watching a new crescent moon hung upside-down 

 in the sky, and wholly obsessed with the vastness 

 and loneliness of the great ocean. Later I went 

 into the library, and turning to the powerful radio 

 which had been given me, I idly put it into com- 

 mission. 



Instantly there arose a confused sound of instru- 

 ments which, almost at once, cleared into a full 

 orchestra, in a concert hall in far distant Pitts- 

 burg, playing "Hands across the Sea." Another 



