10 



THE OPAL SEA 



Skirting the 

 Atlantic. 



one port to another. It was navigation on an 

 inland basin where the promontories, capes, 

 reefs, and islands were well known. Beyond the 

 land-locked Mediterranean the voyages were 

 less frequent. True enough, the early Phoeni- 

 cians had passed through the Straits and had 

 found their way, " through the misty sea of 

 darkness lying under the Bear, who alone is 

 never bathed in the ocean," to England. Later 

 on the Massilians had ventured farther into 

 the North Sea in search of furs and amber; 

 and the Romans had reached the far Baltic. 

 The Western Islands were known, there had 

 been explorations down the coast of Africa, 

 and, though the Mediterranean people knew 

 it not, the Northmen had sailed in their open 

 boats to Iceland, Greenland, and thence on 

 down the American coast. But no European 

 of the Continent as yet knew the western 

 shores of the Atlantic or so much as dreamed 

 of the vast new world. 



How very strange that after centuries of 

 association the knowledge of the sea's ex- 

 tent should have been so limited ! The earth 

 was round in spite of what the Papacy might 

 think and many navigators believed it in the- 

 ory; but where was the heroic soul to put it 

 to the proof ! And was it a round of earth or 



Voyages to 

 the Baltic, 

 Iceland, 

 Greenland. 



