OCEANUS 3 



our study. We shall begin at the beginning with the creation 

 of the ocean basin, for the history of the Atlantic is in a way 

 the history of the development of the seas and continents, of 

 the world itself. 



The world, as known in the time of Hecotaeus — 500 B.C. 



The time of man on earth has been short. If we use as a 

 geological year the time from the creation of the earth as we 

 know it to the present day, the existence of man might measure 

 two minutes. Even thus briefly, with antlike patience and 

 imaginative boldness, man has managed to construct a fairly 

 accurate picture of what the world was like before his own 

 remote ancestry was called forth from the mud and waters of 

 creative chaos. It is a picture of elemental forces in harmony, 

 all stemming from the energy of the sun. The river of the sea 

 in motion reflects an invisible river of the airs above it which 

 act as a great thermal engine geared to the waters beneath. But 



