6 THE OCEAN RIVER 



Salt water both in quality and quantity is one of man's best 

 sources of food, as well as his best thermostatic regulator of 

 the fierce energy of the sun. When the Stream wrestles with 

 the Labrador Current from Cape Cod to Newfoundland, a 

 vast mixing of the ocean, slow but effective, creates ideal food 

 conditions by the turbulent stirring of waters rich in the 

 ocean's fertilizer. In these waters the minute vegetable and 

 animal life of the sea called plankton multiplies vastly, and 

 here the numberless schools of fish congregate along the 

 undersea banks. These fishing grounds were almost as early in 

 their pull of venturesome Europeans to the west as Colum- 

 bus' dreams of the wealth of China or Japan beyond the Gates 

 of Gibraltar; and their wealth has outvalued the treasures of 

 Mexico and Peru. Spanish and Portuguese fishermen, often 

 blown far to sea, kept alive in men's minds the teasing picture 

 of the Fortunate Isles over against the setting sun. Horror and 

 fascination, greed and romance, all drifted against the old 

 continent of Europe from the warm waters of the Atlantic. 



The first history of the Ocean River is a combination of 

 rumored voyages and strange legend, and the effect of this on 

 man's mind and imagination must be part of our story. The 

 Phoenicians left no specific log of their bold voyages at the 

 dawn of history, but their deeds have come down to us from 

 other classic sources. Plato, from Solon, an early Greek his- 

 torian, has written of the legend of the lost Atlantis beyond 

 the Gates of Gibraltar. The early legends of the Fortunate 

 Isles and the Homeric stories all point to persistent rumors of 

 lands in the Sea of Darkness toward the setting sun beyond 

 the known Mediterranean world. So certain first voyages have 

 been accepted as probable, and dates have been assigned to 

 them that mark the beginnings of Atlantic history. Then 

 slowly, as Rome came into power, the voyages westward fell 

 off and the charting and explorations of the western seas 

 ceased for a while. 



