CHAPTER II 



Currents of 

 the sea. 



SWIRLS OF THE SEA 



The ancient tradition that a great river in 

 the sea ran about the land, circling it like a 

 ring, seems to the people of to-day an apt in- 

 stance of early error; and yet it was not such 

 a wild conjecture, not so far from the apparent 

 truth. Off from the western coasts of Europe 

 and Africa the Phoenicians knew the currents 

 of the ocean that helped or hindered their far- 

 traveling ships. They knew there was a vast 

 circulation through the seas; and wherever on 

 distant island shores their vessels touched they 

 heard tales told of the blue beyond with its 

 mighty streams eddying about rocks or whirling 

 downward into maelstrom depths. These tales 

 (grown colossal by frequent tellings) finally be- 

 came beliefs with the primitive races ; the ocean 

 was regarded as an unending strom, and the 

 land little more than a tangible something an- 

 chored in the center of the swirl. It was a 

 very little world, a 



" precious stone set in the silver sea " 



with wild waves fretting at its edges. 



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