THE OCEAN 



CHAPTER I 



HISTORICAL NOTES : METHODS AND INSTRU- 

 MENTS OF DEEP-SEA RESEARCH 



Historical. — Many of the phenomena exhibited 

 at the surface of the sea were regarded with 

 terror by primitive man, and poets have 

 sung the praises of that hero who first shaped 

 a hollow canoe out of a fallen tree and thus 

 initiated shipbuilding and the navigation of 

 the open ocean. 



The early Greeks had a practical knowledge 

 only of the enclosed Mediterranean, which 

 they called Thalassa, but they had also some 

 knowledge of what was called the great 

 River of the Ocean beyond the Pillars of 

 Hercules, as well as of the Arabian Gulf, 

 which was called the Erythraean Sea. They 

 are said to have derived their information 

 concerning this great outer ocean from the 

 Phoenicians. Necho, an early Egyptian king, 

 is reported to have ordered his Phoenician 

 sailors to sail down the east coast of Africa, 

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