MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND FIGURES. 



631 



year she was used as a troop ship to convey 

 troops to Canada. The years 1862 to 1864 

 were a blank as concerns the history of the 

 steamer. In 1864 she was employed by the 

 Atlantic Telegraph Company as a cable-laying 

 ship, and continued in such service during 

 1865 and 1866i* In 1867, when the prepara- 

 tions for the Paris International Exhibition 

 were approaching completion, a body of specu- 

 lators chartered the Great Eastern for a certain 

 number of months, to convey visitors from New 

 York to Havre and back ; but the speculation 

 proved an utter failure, there being neither 

 wages for the seamen and engineers, nor profits 

 for the speculators. In 1868 the ship was 

 again chartered by the Telegraph Construction 

 and Maintenance Company. On October 28, 

 1885, the Great Eastern was sold at public 

 auction for $126,000. 



Giant's Causeway. The name Giant's 

 Causeway is often applied to the entire range 

 of cliffs in the County Antrim, on the north- 

 east coast of Ireland, but it properly belongs 

 to only a small portion of them, which is a 

 platform of basalt in closely arranged columns, 

 from fifteen to thirty-six feet high, which ex- 

 tends from a steep cliff down into the sea till 

 it is lost below low- water mark. This plat- 

 form is divided across its breadth into three 

 portions, the Little, Middle, and Grand Cause- 

 way, these being separated from each other by 

 dikes of basalt. The columns are generally 

 hexagonal prisms, but they are also found of 

 five, seven, eight, and nine sides, in almost 

 every instance being fitted together with the 

 utmost precision, even so that water cannot 

 penetrate between adjoining columns. The 

 name " causeway " was given to the platform 

 because it appeared to primitive imagination 

 to be a road to the water, prepared for giants. 



Golden Fleece, The. According to 

 Greek tradition, Pelias, King of lolcos, in 

 Thessaly, dethroned the rightful King .ZEsou 

 and endeavored to kill his son Jason, who was, 

 however, saved by his parents, who conveyed 

 him by night to the cave of the centaur Chiron, 

 to whose care they committed him, and then 

 gave out that he was dead. He remained with 

 Chiron until he was twenty years of age and 

 then went to claim his father's crown. Pelias 

 agreed to surrender the kingdom to Jason pro- 

 vided he brought him the golden fleece from 

 Colchis, expecting that he would never attempt 

 it, or, if he did, would surely perish in the rash 

 adventure. One of the myths of the fleece is 

 that Ino, second wife of Athamas, King of 

 Orchomenus, in Bceotia, wished to destroy 

 Phrixus, son of Athamas ; but he and Helle 

 were saved by their mother, Nephele, who gave 

 them a golden fleeced ram she had obtained 



from Mercury, which carried them through 

 the air over sea and land. Helle fell into the 

 sea, and it was named Hellespontus. Phrixus 

 went on to Colchis, where he was kindly re- 

 ceived, and sacrificed the ram to Jupiter Phyx- 

 ius, and gave the golden fleece to ^Eetes, who 

 nailed it to an oak in the grove of Mars, where 

 it was watched over by a sleepless dragon. 

 Jason, by heralds, announced the great under- 

 taking throughout the land, and all the heroes 

 of Greece flocked to his assistance, and the 

 famous company were called the " Argo- 

 nauts," from the name of their ship, Argo, 

 which was built for them by Argus, with, the 

 aid of Minerva. After a voyage of varied 

 adventure the heroes reached Colchis, and 

 Jason explained the cause of his voyage to 

 .ZEetes ; but the conditions on which he was to 

 recover the golden fleece were so hard that the 

 Argonauts must have perished had not Medea, 

 the king's daughter, fallen in love with their 

 leader. She had a conference with Jason, and 

 after mutual oaths of fidelity Medea pledged 

 herself to deliver the Argonauts from her 

 father's hard conditions if Jason would marry 

 her and carry her with him to Greece. He 

 was to tame two bulls which had brazen feet 

 and breathed flame from their throats. When 

 he had yoked these, he was to plow with them 

 a piece of ground, and sow the serpent's teeth 

 which -ZEetes possessed. All this was to be 

 performed in one day. Medea, who was an 

 enchantress, gave him a salve to rub on, his 

 body, shield, and spear. The virtue of this 

 salve would last an entire day, and protect 

 alike against fire and steel. She further, told 

 him that when he had sown the teeth a crop 

 of armed men would spring up and prepare to 

 attack him. Among these she desired him to 

 fling stones, and while they were fighting with 

 one another about them, each imagining that 

 the other had thrown the stones, to fall on and 

 slay them. All of these things were done by 

 Jason, but JEetes refused to give the fleece, 

 and meditated burning the Argo, Jason's ves- 

 sel, and slaying her crew. Medea, anticipat- 

 ing him, led Jason by night to the golden 

 fleece ; with her drugs she put to sleep the 

 serpent which guarded it; and then, taking 

 her little brother Absyrtus out of his bed, she 

 embarked with him in the Argo, and the ves- 

 sel set sail while it was yet night. They were 

 pursued by JEetes, when Medea killed her 

 brother and threw his body into the sea piece 

 by piece, thus delaying the king, who stopped 

 to gather up the remains, leaving the Argo- 

 nauts to escape. After many months of toil 

 and numerous trials they at last reached lolcos, 

 and the Argo was consecrated by Jason, on the 

 Isthmus of Corinth, to Neptune. 



