Round the World Author:William Henry Giles Kingston Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 60 THE WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. CHAPTER III. THE WONDERS OF THE OCEAN. We were about a day's sail or so from the Cape de Verd Islands, when one day, as I w... more »as looking out, I saw on the starboard-bow what I was certain was a shoal of great extent covered with sea-weed. " Land on the starboard-bow!" I sung out, thinking there could be no mistake about the matter. I heard a loud laugh at my shoulder. Old Ben Tool stood there. " Well, if that is not land, I do not know what is!" I replied; but still Ben only laughed at me. I was arguing the point, when the captain, who was on deck, called me aft. I found him with a chart, which he was showing to Gerard. " You are not the first person, Harry, who has taken that collection of sea-weed for land," he observed. " That is the Sargasso Sea. When the companions of Columbus sighted it, they thought that it marked the extreme limits of the navigable ocean. We are at the southern edge of it. Look at this chart; it extends in a triangular form between the groups of the Azores, Canaries, and Cape de Verds. It is caused by the Gulf Stream, which, circling round the Atlantic, sends off towards the centre all the sea-weed and driftwood collected in its course. Throw some chips into that tub ; now, set the water in motion with your hand. THE SARGASSO SEA 61 The current you have created sends off all the chips into the centre of the tub. You need never forget how this Sargasso Sea becomes covered with weed. But you will wish to know something about this wonderful Gulf Stream, which not only produces the effect I have described, but exerts a very powerful influence on the climate of many countries, and on the navigation of the Atlantic, besides causing many other important results. It is, indeed, one of the most wonderful of all the phe...« less