184 THE SEA-SHORE. 



habits, quitting as it does the sub-marine soil, to 

 which in its early stages it is attached, but also 

 for the amazing profusion in which it is frequently 

 found. It only grows within forty degrees of lati- 

 tude on either side of the equator; but currents 

 often cast it on our coast. It is a very remarkable 

 circumstance in the history of this plant, that it is 

 chiefly local in its position, even when detached, 

 forming two great banks, one of which is usually 

 crossed by vessels homeward bound from Monte 

 Video, or the Cape of Good Hope ; and so con- 

 stant are they in their places that they assist the 

 Spanish pilots to rectify their longitude. It is 

 probable that these banks were known to the 

 Phoenicians, who in thirty days' sail, with an east- 

 erly wind, came into what they called " the Weedy 

 Sea;" and to the present day, by the Spaniards and 

 Portuguese, the chief tract is named Mar de Zar- 

 gasso. It was the entering on such fields as these 

 that struck so much terror into the minds of the 

 first discoverers of America; for, sailing tardily 

 through extensive meadows for days together, the 

 sailors of Columbus " superstitiously believed 

 that the hindrance was designed by Heaven to 

 stay their adventurous course ; hence they wildly 

 urged their commander to proceed no further, 

 declaring that, through the bands thus woven by 

 nature, it would be presumptuous impiety to force 

 a way." Burnett. 



" That these plants are produced within the 

 tropics," remarks Dr. Greville, " there can hardly 

 be a question ; but at what depth they vegetate 

 is still involved in obscurity. Neither is it clearly 

 ascertained why the banks of weed should always 

 occur in the same places. The supposition, that 



