"The Sea! the Open Sea ! ' : 



At first they were content with the nearer 

 reaches of the Indian Ocean, and with the more 

 eastern parts of the Mediterranean. But gradu- 

 ally they wandered farther. Colony after colony 

 was planted beyond Egypt, till they reached the 

 Pillars of Hercules, known to us as the Straits 

 of Gibraltar, to face a wild and strange Ocean, 

 full of mystery. 



There they made a startling discovery, enough 

 to impress the more thoughtful minds among 

 them. Far to the east, in the " Indian Ocean " 

 of our days, their sailors had been acquainted 

 with high and low tides ; while throughout the 

 Mediterranean scarcely any tides existed. But 

 in the open sea, outside the narrow Channel, 

 they found the very same tidal changes as in the 

 eastern ocean. 



It is hardly to be supposed that any one of 

 them had a mind of such far-seeing grasp that 

 he should be able to conjecture the grand truth 

 of eastern and western oceans being ONE 

 swayed by the same influences, governed by 

 the same laws. 



A Phenician of those days, catching a glimpse 

 of this truth, would have been worthy to take 

 rank beside our Sir Isaac Newton of after days. 

 They are believed to have observed the coinci- 



5 



