THE OCEAN WORLD. 
4fi 
If the waves, in their reflux, meet with obstacles, whirlpools and 
whirlwinds are the result — the former the terror of navigators. Such 
are the whirlpools known in the Straits of Messina, between the rock® 
of Charybdis and Scylla, celebrated as the terror of ancient mariner®* 
and which were sung by Homer, Ovid, and Yirgil : 
“ Scylla latus doxtrum, locvum irrequieta Charybdis, 
Infestat; vorat luec raptis revomifcque carinus. 
. . . Incidit in Soyllara, eupiens vitare Charybdim.” 
These rocks are better understood, and less redoubted in our days. A* 
Charybdis, there is a foaming whirlpool ; at Scylla, the waves dash 
against the low wall of rock which forms the promontory, scarcely 
noticed by the navigator of our days. 
Another celebrated whirlpool is that of Euripus, near the Island oi 
Euboea ; another is known in the Gulf of Bothnia. But perhaps the 
best known rocky danger is the Maelstrom, whose waters have ® 
gyratory movement, producing a whirlpool at certain states of the tide* 
the result of opposing currents, which change every six horn's, and 
which, from its power and magnitude, is capable of attracting and 
engulfing ships to their destruction, although chiefly dangerous to 
smaller craft. 
To the combined effects of tides and whirlpools may also be attri- 
buted the hurricanes, so dreaded by navigators, which so frequently 
visit tho Mauritius and other parts of the Indian Ocean. In periods ot 
the utmost calms, when there is scarcely a breath to ruffle the ah’) 
these shores are sometimes visited by immense waves, accompanied by 
whirlwinds, which seem capable of blowing the ships out of the water* 
seizing them by the keel, whirling them round on an axis, and finally 
.capsizing them. “ At the period of the changing monsoon, the winds* 
breaking loose from their controlling forces, seem to rage with a fury 
capable of breaking xrp tho very fountains of the deep.” 
The hurricanes of the Atlantic occur in the months of August and 
September, while the south-west monsoon of Africa and the south- 
east monsoon of the West Indies are at their height ; the agents of tb e 
one drawing the north-east trade-winds into the interior of Mexico and 
Texas, the other drawing them into the interior of Africa, greatly dis- 
turbing the equilibrium* of the atmosphere. 
