264 



through the tropic of Cancer, to the 28th degrees of north latitude 

 and 43d of west longitude, when it finally left us, in what is 

 called the Sargasso, or Grass-sea; so named from the prodigious 

 number of fuci and other marine plants which almost cover the 

 ocean, from the 18th or 20th degree of north latitude, to .'30 and 

 32, and extend for fifteen degrees of west longitude from 25 to 

 40°. It is generally supposed these marine plants are carried by 

 the winds and currents from the Gulf of Mexico. This is disputed 

 by philosophers; and in one of Barrow's voyages he rationally ob- 

 serves, that the plant has neither roots nor fibrils of any kind to 

 indicate that it ever was attached to rocks or shores ; but its 

 central stem, buried in the midst of its leafy branches, makes 

 it sufficiently evident that it vegetates while floating on the 

 surface of the fathomless deep; some of these plants are many 

 feet in diameter, others only a few inches; all appear in a growing 

 state, covered with fish, worms, insects, and testaceous animals of 

 various descriptions. 



A track so much frequented affords very little for a modern 

 voyager to describe. Dolphins, albacores, and bonettas, the cory- 

 phaena or dorado, scomber thynnus, and scomber pelamis, are 

 now as well known as the icthyology of Europe. We had one op- 

 portunity of seeing an amazing sword-fish, (xiphias gladius) which 

 often does dreadful damage to the hull of a ship, by darting 

 in the sword or horn, from whence it derives its name; this be- 

 ing frequently broken off, and torn from the head by the violence 

 of the shock, the sea becomes stained with blood, without any ap- 

 parent cause; until when docked, at the conclusion of the voyage, 



