Chaka'-tkk ok 
TU* PlKISIOUXi*. 
6 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
r ill tunc.-, and -ombre vapours there obscure the light of day. 1 Himilco was not 
: tiiiue his route through this gloom, across this muddy ocean covered with 
- a-wvrd and inhabited by marine monsters. It was through such sombre colours that 
tin an< ients viewed the external sea to the west and beyond the coasts of Germany and 
Britain, to which they gave the names of Mare cronhm, pigrum, concretum , mortuum. 
1 ■ Theophrastus - and in a compilation written about the middle of the third century before 
( i.ri-t . i heii aiv other references to Carthaginian discoveries, which seem to indicate 
’ll • t h< \ wen acquainted with the weed of the Sargasso Sea. The mention of sea- 
i:k ' ii-tiTs plunging among the sea-weeds in which the vessels were becalmed shows that 
• . ' we eds could not have been attached to the shore or to shallows, and is in favour 
of the view that the Carthaginians had reached the 'Sargasso Sea, 
T . rnlge from the few details that have been transmitted to us by classical writers, 
tli.- know h-d m ol the ocean possessed bj^ Phoenicians and Carthaginians was of an essen- 
tially i .radical kind. In this phase of maritime exploration, the cruises and mercantile 
- v ; - 1 :ti . 11 - K-complished little more than an extension of knowledge with regard to the 
extent and limits of the different seas, the most elementary part of the science. 
What we know of the Carthaginians has been transmitted through the Romans, 
v 1 'ii information regarding the Phoenicians of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean 
i <1 riv< d from tie Greeks. The Greeks profited by the. discoveries of the Phoenicians 
.,ii ■ vrntuallv drove them from the sea, of which they had so long been the masters. 
T I.--,' bellicos' Phoenicians, when they encountered their rivals, sought new routes for 
tii- ii maritime commerce, which for centuries they had carefully concealed, thus preserv- 
:.g to them .-Ives the monopoly of the rare products for which they went in search to 
gr> 1 di g me- s across the sea, such as amber, tin, silver, gold dust, pearls, and aromatics. 
T precautions taken by these peoples to hide their oceanic routes tended not a 
to "Pscure the notions concerning the sea among the ancients. The Phcemcians 
0 ! ' i’ ’ h /ini "is excited the imaginations of their rivals, when they attempted to 
; !!"■■•. hem, by . xnggerating the dangerous adventures of their distant voyages. Thus 
< ■ g i 1 ■ - a . •. riflins of the Pontus Euxinus, Scylla and Charybdis, the gelatinous 
- ■ f 1 1; - i -i t ' and other fables. Had the historical records of the Phoenicians been 
1 r v 1, uv should certainly have found in them more than the merest outlines of the 
h h dgi <>f the s. a- a result of their voyages. These sagacious and experienced sailors 
c ' hi'-- a cumulated many important facts relating to the morphology of the ocean. 
\ | ’hat initiated such great enterprises and accomplished such extensive explora- 
t a:. .. have i -cen composed solely of clever navigators, eager merchants, and bold 
• ' j-l'-r r-. T !ior*- mu t have been in their midst men of learning who speculated 
fling tie origin of the phenomena of the ocean. We know little or nothing of 
1 R. 1 AvienuB, Oru nmritimn, vv. 115 130, 406-415. 
’ It' 1 I’lnnt., iv. 6, 7. * Mirab. Auscull., p. 136. 
