INTRODUCTION. IX 



men, now brought together for the first time and patiently dis- 

 cussed. The results tended to increase human knowledge with 

 regard to the sea and its wonders, and therefore they could not be 

 wanting in attractions to right-minded men. 



XYIII. As we went on with our labors in this field, it was 

 found that the flight into the garret and the dive into the sea- 

 chests for old logs (§11.) were not sufficient. The old records thence 

 turned up proved to be only outcroppings to the rich vein which 

 had been struck ; but the indications which they gave of hidden 

 treasure were unmistakable to the nautical mind of the world. 

 It was found necessary to go deeper, and to observe more minutely 

 than our ancestors of the sea had done. 



XIX. Accordingly, it was deemed advisable to make an exhibit 

 of what had been obtained from the old sea-chests. This was 

 done, and presented to mariners in the shape of a set of " Track 

 Charts" for the North Atlantic Ocean. 



XX. On those charts aU the tracks that could be collected at 

 that time from the old sea-journals were projected, and one was 

 surprised to see how they cut up and divided the ocean off into 

 great turnpilic-looking thoroughfares. There was the road to 

 China : it, and the road to South America, to the Pacific around 

 Cape Horn, to the East around the Cape of Good Hope, and to 

 Australia, were one and the same until the navigator had left the 

 North, crossed the equator, and passed over into the South Atlan- 

 tic. Here there was, in this great highway, a fork to the right, 

 leading to the ports of Brazil. A little farther on you came to an- 

 other on the left : it was the road by which the Cape of Good Hope 

 was to be doubled. There was no finger-board or other visible 

 sign to guide the wayfarer, but, nevertheless, all turned oiT at the 

 same place. None missed it. 



XXI. This outward road to India and the gold fields of Austra- 

 lia was, as it passed tlii'ough the South Atlantic, a crooked one, 

 but the road home from the Cape was straight, for the winds along 

 it were fresh and fair. 



XXII. But the outward-bomid route through the North Atlantic, 

 from the United States especially, was most curious and crooked. 

 It seemed, on the chart, to be as well beaten, and almost as well 

 defined, as any Indian trail through the wilderness. First it struck 



