BOOK II. 



THE AECHITECTS OF THE SEA. 



When ancient philosophy maintained, with Thales, that 

 everything had issued from the sea, it Avas quite right. 



The sea possesses a fecundity which the eaith in no 

 way approaches. So magnificent is it, that as Christopher 

 Columbus said, ''the tongue and the hand do not suffice 

 to describe it." Life shows itself everywhere; animates 

 its darkest abysses, and displays itself in profusion on 

 its surface. As Ave have seen, Ave find its fragile repre- 

 sentatives at a depth of 12,000 feet. Others love to be 

 only in the midst of the Avaves, as, for instance, the 

 swimming fucus, Avhich is seen forming immense meadoAvs 

 that stop the ships. 



The largest of these fucus banks is found in the path 

 of mariners sailing from Europe to America, between the 

 Azores, the Canary, and Cape Verd Islands. Mention 

 is already made of it in the Phoenician traditions, Avliere 

 they speak of n Iterbose or gelatinous sea, situated beyond 

 the Pillars of Hercules. Aristotle says that the boldest 

 mariners of antiquity, startled at its appearance, durst 

 not cross its Iwundary. 



This immense plain of Algte, AAdiich seems to bind the 



