78 



A HISTORY OF 



ment communicated to him by an able sea- 

 man, who being with one of the king's fri- 

 gates in the Baltic, found he went with his 

 boat into the mid-stream, and was carried 

 violently by the current ; upon which a bas- 

 ket was sunk, with a large cannon ball, to a 

 certain depth of water, which gave a check 

 to the boat's motion ; as the basket sunk still 

 lower, the boat was driven by the force of 

 the water below against the upper current ; 

 and the lower the basket was let down, the 

 stronger the under current was fotfrid, and the 

 quicker was the boat's motion against the 

 upper stream, which seemed not to be above 

 four fathom deep. Hence we may readily 

 infer, that the same cause may operate at the 

 straits of Gibraltar ; and that while the Me- 

 diterranean seems replenishing at top, it may 

 be emptying at bottom. 



The number of the currents at sea are im- 

 possible to be recounted, nor, indeed, are 

 they always known ; new ones are daily pro- 

 duced by a variety of causes, and as quickly 

 disappear. When a regular current is oppo- 

 sed by another in a narrow strait, or where 

 the bottom of the sea is very uneven, a 

 whirlpool is often formed. These were for- 

 merly considered as the most formidable ob- 

 structions to navigation, and the ancient po- 

 ets and historians speak of them vvitli terror; 

 they are described as swallowing up ships, 

 and dashing them against the rocks at the 

 bottom : apprehension did no fail to add 

 imaginary terrors to the description, ancl pla- 

 ced at the centre of the whirlpool a dreadful 

 den, fraught with monsters, whose howlings 

 served to add new horrors to the dashings of 

 the deep. Mankind at present, however, 

 view these eddies of the sea with very little 

 apprehension ; and some have wondered 

 how the ancients could have so much over- 

 charged their descriptions. But all this is 

 very naturally accounted for. In those times 

 when navigation was in its infancy, and the 

 slightest concussion of the waves generally 

 sent the poor adventurer to the bottom, it is 

 not to be wondered at that he was terrified 

 at the violent agitations in one of these. 

 When his little ship, but ill fitted for oppos- 

 ing the fury of the sea, was got within the 

 vortex, there was then no possibility of ever 

 returning. To add to the fatality, they were 



always near the shore ; and along the shore 

 was the only place where this ill-provided 

 mariner durst venture to sail. These were 

 therefore dreadful impediments to his navi- 

 gation ; for if he attempted to pass between 

 I hem and the shore, he was sometimes suck- 

 ed in by the eddy; and if he attempted to 

 avoid them out at sea, he was often sunk by 

 the storm. But in our time, and in our pre- 

 sent improved state of navigation, Charybdis, 

 and the Euripus, with all the other irregular 

 currents of the Mediterranean, are no long- 

 er formidable. Mr. Addison, not attending 

 to this train of thinking, upon passing through 

 the straits of Sicily, was surprised at the lit- 

 tle there was of terror in the present appear- 

 ance of Scylla and Charybdis; and seems to 

 be of opinion, that their agitations are much 

 diminished since the times of antiquity. In 

 fact, from the reasons above, all the wonders 

 of the Mediterranean Sea are described in 

 much higher colours than they merit, to us 

 who are acquainted with the more magnifi- 

 cent terrors of the Ocean. The Mediterra- 

 nean is one of the smoothest and most gentle 

 seas in the world ; its tides are scarcely per- 

 ceivable, except in the gulf of Venice, and 

 shipwrecks are less known there than in any 

 other part of the world. 



It is in the Ocean, therefore, that these 

 whirlpools are particularly dangerous, where 

 the tides are violent, and the tempests fierce. 

 To mention only one, that called the Maels- 

 troom, upon the coasts of Norway, which is 

 considered as the most dreadful and vora- 

 cious in the world. - The name it has receiv- 

 ed from the natives, signifies the navel of the 

 sea, since they suppose that a great share of 

 the water of the sea is sucked up and dis- 

 charged by its vortex. A minute descrip- 

 tion of the internal parts is not to be expect- 

 ed, since none who were there ever returned 

 to bring back information. The body of the 

 waters 'that form this whirlpool, are extended 

 in a circle above thirteen miles in circumfer- 

 ence." In the midst of this stands a rock, 

 against which the tide in its ebb is dashed 

 with inconceivable fury. At this time it in- 

 stantly swallows up all tilings that come with- 

 in the sphere of its violence, trees, timber, 



Kircher Mund. Subt. vol. i. p. 15G. 



