CHAPTER VI 



WHIRLPOOLS 



OLD encyclopaedias and works on natural history 

 have very curious ideas about whirlpools. Until 

 about a century ago the idea prevailed that they 

 could be appeased. Ray's Cyclopaedia, published in 1819, 

 for instance, describes a marine whirlpool in these terms : 



Wherever it appears it is very furious, and boats, 

 &c., would inevitably be drawn into it ; but the people 

 who navigate them are prepared for it, and always 

 carry an empty vessel, a log of wood, or large bundle 

 of straw, or some such thing, in the boat with them. 

 As soon as they perceive the whirlpool they toss this 

 within the vortex, keeping themselves out. This sub- 

 stance, whatever it be, is immediately received in the 

 centre, and carried under water; and as soon as this 

 is done the surface of the place becomes smooth, and 

 they row over it with safety; and in about an hour 

 they see the vortex begin again in some other place, 

 usually at about a mile from the first. 



Presumably the same vortex, which has apparently 

 been appeased in one place, has gone down into the 

 sea and emerged in another place ! The Cyclopaedia does 

 not mention more than one "bundle of straw, or some 

 such thing", but it is evident that a number would have 

 to be carried if several whirlpools were to be appeased in 

 one boat trip. 



One of the best known whirlpools is the Charybdis. 



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