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HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



whales, to terrify them by shouts and the din of trumpets. At 

 a given signal, the vessels started and dashed forward upon the 

 cetaceous army : the whales plunged into the abysses of the water, 

 and, reappearing at the sterns of the fleet, sent up a shower of 

 spirts in derision of their timorous enemy. Nearchus found 

 these fish so abundant that large numbers of them were stranded 

 in every storm: the inhabitants built houses of their bones, 

 using the larger bones for posts, planks, and doors; the jaw- 

 bones furnished an excellent thatch, or roofing material. He 

 also saw huts constructed of the back-bones of smaller fish. 



The fleet now reached the coast of Caramania, after passing 

 an island supposed to be inhabited by an enchantress very much 

 like the Circe of the Greek fable, who was said to seduce navi- 

 gators by the promise of voluptuous pleasures and then change 

 them into fish. Nearchus now found his distresses nearly at an 

 end, as the soil was productive of grain and fruit, and as the 

 streams yielded an abundance of water. He soon came in view 

 of a vast promontory on the Arabian side, (Cape Mussendoun,) 

 which seemed completely to close the entrance to the Persian 

 Gulf. The sailors, weary of their long voyage, earnestly be- 

 sought Nearchus to land here and to march across the country 

 to Babylon. Nearchus insisted that this would not be fulfilling 

 the intentions of Alexander, whose command it was to survey 

 every portion of the coast from the Indus to the Euphrates. 

 They doubled the cape, therefore, and entered the Persian Gulf. 

 Keeping close to the northern shore, they came at last to a tract 

 of territory inhabited by friendly races and yielding an abun- 

 dance of every fruit except the olive. They landed at the mouth 

 of the Anamis, — the modern Minab, — and refreshed themselves 

 after their long hardships. They reposed under the shade of palms, 

 and conversed gayly of the dangers they had escaped and the 

 wonders they had seen. A party wandered from the coast towards 

 the interior, and, to their surprise and joy, met a man clothed 

 in the Greek chlamys and speaking the Greek language. They 



