110 SEA- WEEDS. 



especially on the Orkney Islands. The Gulf- weed, 

 or Sea-grape, is the Sargassum vulgare of modern 

 authors ; but another species, the berry-bearing 

 Sargasso, is also thrown up on our coast, and some 

 writers consider these as but varieties of one spe- 

 cies. However that may be, this floating Sargasso 

 is a very interesting plant on many accounts. It 

 has been found in almost every part of the world, 

 and it floats in an immense tangling mass, covering 

 a space of at least forty thousand square miles in 

 the Atlantic, just within the great Equatorial cur- 

 rent. This was the mass of weed which Columbus 

 described as floating meadows, and these fields of 

 sea-weed (so new a sight to the Spanish navigators) 

 alarmed the crew of the " Santa Maria," when Co- 

 lumbus was guiding them to the discovery of a 

 new world. Superstitiously regarding this obstacle 

 as an indication that their expedition had not re- 

 ceived the sanction of the Almighty, they had 

 nearly, in their faint-heartedness, given up the 

 pursuit on which they had so far entered. This 

 part of the ocean is believed to be the portion 

 called by the ancient Phoenicians the Weedy Sea. 

 The English mariner still terms it the Grassy, 

 and the Spaniard, El Mar do Sargasso. This sea 

 extends from 22 to 36 north latitude, and from 

 25 to 45 west longitude, and its weeds often im- 

 pede the course of vessels through them. Beyond 

 these limits there are few pieces of the sea- weed 

 seen, and sometimes even in the grassy sea, the 

 vessel may float for hours and scarcely see any, 

 till it shall at once find itself in a dense dark mass. 

 These floating tangles were formerly supposed to 

 have been brought by the Gulf stream from the 

 Gulf of Mexico. Then they were supposed to have 



