INTRODUCTION. IX 
men, now brought together for the first time and patiently dis- 
cussed. The results tended to increase human knowledge with 
regard to the sea and its wonders, and therefore they could not he 
wanting in attractions to right-minded men. 
XYIII. As we went on with our labors in this field, it was 
found that the flight into the garret and the dive into the sea- 
chests for old logs {§ II.) were not sufficient. The old records thence 
turned up proved to be only outcroppings to the rich vein which 
had been struck ; but the indications which they gave of hidden 
treasure were unmistakable to the nautical mind of the world. 
It was found necessary to go deeper, and to observe more minutely 
than our ancestors of the sea had done. 
XIX. Accordingly, it was deemed advisable to make an exhibit 
of what had been obtained from the old sea-chests. This was 
done, and presented to mariners in the shape of a set of " Track 
Charts" for the North Atlantic Ocean. 
XX. On those charts all the tracks that could be collected at 
that time from the old sea-journals were projected, and one was 
surprised to see how they cut up and divided the ocean ofi^ into 
great turnpike-looking thoroughfares. There was the road to 
China : it, and the road to South America, to the Pacific around 
Cape Horn, to the East around the Cape of G-ood Hope, and to 
Australia, were one and the same until the navigator had left the 
North, crossed the equator, and passed over into the South Atlan- 
tic. Here there was, in this great highway, a fork to the right, 
leading to the ports of Brazil. A little farther on you came to an- 
other on the left : it was the road by which the Cape of G-ood Hope 
was to be doubled. There was no finger-board or other visible 
sign to guide the wayfarer, but, nevertheless, all turned off" at the 
same place. None missed it. 
XXI. This outward road to India and the gold fields of Austra- 
lia was, as it passed through the South Atlantic, a crooked one, 
but the road home from the Cape was straight, for the winds along 
it were fresh and fair. 
XXII. But the outward-bound route through the North Atlantic, 
from the United States especially, was most curious and crooked. 
It seemed, on the chart, to be as well beaten, and almost as well 
defined, as any Indian trail through the wilderness. First it struck 
