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prairie. Farther than the eye can reach is spread a yellowish- 
brown vegetation which covers the water as grass covers the 
plain. Sometimes these weeds are so thick as to impede navi- 
gation, and, seen from a little distance, seem substantial enough 
to walk upon. At other times, according to seasons and condi- 
tions of storm and wind, they are divided into strips or into 
island-like masses, with spaces of clear water between. If the 
sailor did not know the special conditions existing here he might 
suppose he had come upon dangerous shallows; or were the 
waters less turbulent he might dream that he was floating 
among the water-weeds of an inland lake. 
This vast acreage of vegetation, as large as the continent of 
Europe, lying southwest of the Azores and extending between 
the Canary and the Cape Verde Islands, was first reported by 
Columbus, and takes its name from the floating plant of which it 
is composed, the Sargassum bacciferum, a species of the order 
Fucacee, commonly known as gulfweed. Columbus’s sailors took 
fright at the marvelous appearance and wished to turn back, 
thinking they had reached the end of the navigable ocean. They 
thought, if land were beyond, it was guarded by shoals, and that 
the weeds concealed dangerous rocks. Columbus threw out two 
hundred fathoms of line, but did not reach bottom, and con- 
tinued on his course for fifteen days before emerging into clear 
water. From that day to this the Sargasso Sea has attracted the 
attention of all navigators. It is especially interesting to scien- 
tists. The physicist finds there the phenomenon of the ocean 
currents holding in a vortex this immense mass of seaweed, the 
zoologist finds a great pasture in whose protecting shelter are 
living and breeding countless numbers of marine animals, and 
the botanist is puzzled because the source of this species of plant 
is clouded with doubt. 
According to one theory, the plants are dislodged by the tem- 
pests from terrestrial beds and carried by the Gulf Stream into 
the huge eddy; but since there does not exist enough of the 
attached plants of this species to supply the vast accumulation, 
another and more generally accepted theory is that the gulfweed 
lives also a pelagic life and adapts itself to the conditions of the 
