THE MYSTERY OF THE SARGASSO SEA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15451, 1 November 1910, Page 10

THE MYSTERY OF THE SARGASSO SEA.

(1> THADDEUO S. DAYTON, iu J “Harper’s Weedy. )

There is ono vest mnrino expanse that mariners shim-tho little-known Sargasso Sea. This hes been a place of mystery aid dread ever since the first bold navigator seeking whao lay beyond the rim of his own .loriwuis.. The' Sargasso Sea- is in mid-Atlantic, Ivin,- between 20 and 36 degrees north Utitude and 30 and 60. degrees tiuio west from Greenwich. L mm more than two million square miles, to h thus almost as larj,-’ ' l > the .. nra, c. itrs From its borders it r.eons an ocean solitude, a moadov; ci ter, wood as hrjro as a continent. It has been popularly believed Umt this .seaweed shrouds all tho cVrohcts ar.d dcuns thav the mighty swirl or tno ocean currents for ages ]',aot Jus seized and swung into Tin: ruN-rni: or Tins DEiP ivatkr. Around the edges of the Sargasso Sea float masses of debris that the currents have mo.,t recently brougiit from fho ends of tho ocean. Th-ere are hup trunks of trees that once grew ui_ Hie forests o? Brazil, a thousand miles from tho ocean in the solitudes of the Amazon : there are casks and boxes tossed overboard f.<ba the galleys of transatlantic liners. Anything mat floats—an *inpwv brirrel or a water-logged €lerelict—once it gets into the grasp of the sea-currents, finds its resting-place in Hie end in this graveyard of the ocean. Tho Sargasso Sea owes its existence to the great ocean rivers that encircle it. Chi’ the charts this huge system of ocean rivers forms on irregular circle, i In the centre ?M it is a great ellipse more than a thousand miles cast and west, end two thousand north and south. It is like a vast lake in tho centre of tho Atlantic, but one whose shores are ever-moving waters instead of stable land. It is liko the centre cairn of an* immense whirlpool. r llie far-off deep-sea currents that sweep around its circumference do nob disturb the stagnant waters within its boundaries. These weed-covered waters are for ever placid, except at rare intervals when some vagrant storm swoops down from the heavens and ruffles their surface*. Tho atmosphere above is usually as calm as tije sea below. Tho r-rc-at rivers of the air, tiie trade-winds, pass this region by. The best way in which the Sargasso Sea may be understood is to compare it with some familiar object of every day. Take a cup of ten and stir it round. The bubbles will rush to the centre and stop there. The sweep of the tea around the edge of the cup is, in a very minute way, the same as the movoment of the mighty ocean currents that swing around the Atlantic with the Sargasso Sea in their centre. A better illustration may be had by taking n basin half full of water and tossing therein some bits of wood or cork, or anything that will float. Then with a sweep of tho hand set the water swirling. All the floating bits will gather in the centre, and there they will stay so long as the, water is in motion. It is thus that THU WRECKS ANT) TI7E INCALCULABLE DEUP.TS swept by this stupendous onrush of tho ocean currents find their way to the centre of the vortex and stay there. Tho great masses of gulfweed are the warders of this prison in the seas. Along tho outor edges there aro detached islands of varying size, vrnich, like the mass of vegetation that stretches to tho sky lino, are of the yellow gulfweed, by the Spaniards called savgazo. These little islands have narrow channels of clear water between them. The water is of intense indigo blue and the seaweed of a bright yellow, the contrast between the two being exceedingly striking. Only a few hundred feet from the outer edges ot these floating islands tho continent of solid marine vegetation begins. No steamship could ever penetrate the Sargasso Spa. Tho tangling weed would choke its propeller and make it useless. The skipper of any sailing craft who runs hu> prow into this thick web of weed through any of tho mischances of navigation is fortunate indeed if he escapes quickly. The Sargasso Sea is baffling. It is not solid enough to walk upon nor liquid enough to permit the navigation of a boat. Whoever falls into it is drowned forthwith. The clinging weed clasps and holds and makes tho stoutest swimmer powerless. Of course it would be possible to cut a passage for a small boat toward the -entre of this immense sea meadow. But the channel behind would close up as quickly as it was made and cut off the avenue of escape. Such an expedition would require a large quantity of supplies, far greater than any boat of moderate size could carry. Some day, no doubt, the Sargasso Sea will be explored, for it lias the lure of mystery which always TEMPTS MET? TO RISK THEIR LIVES. So far as known the only real attempt that ever has been made to explore tho Sargasso Sea and to map it accurately was that of a Captain Leps, tho master of a French sailing vessel, more than half a century ago. Tn his report, written in 1857 and published in a bulletin of the French Geographical Society eight years later, he gave a brief account of his observations, which extended over a period of some three months. Captain Leps does not say how he came to receive his exploring commission, and his accounts reads like that of an experienced mariner rather than that of a mail of science. The map lie made, however, is considered cho most accurate one in existence. Ht did not attempt to penetrate tins great floating mass of seaweed, but; seems to have contented himself with sailing around it and observing the course of the currents.

The belief that appears to hare been shared by such geographers as Oviedo and Baron von Humboldt—that the sea is impenetrable, aifd that it holds forever all that comes within its boundaries—seems to have boon disproved by what happened to a. derelict recently.

In May Inst the United States Hydrographic Office at Washington reported that tho Norwegian barque Crown—wrecked and abandoned—drifted into the Sargasso- Sea cn one side and came out later on the other. Apparently this boat bad passed directly through tbo centre of this ocean desert—straight across the 1100 miles of .its diameter, steered' only by the currents of the ocean. Modern hydrographic science does not regard the Sargasso Sea as anything to be dreaded. It takes its fabulous terrors as things not proven. Lieutenant Ridclcy Hunt, United States Navy, in charge of Branch Hydrogranhic Office in New York City, o- W, ‘ K to sa }' "-bout it: . " through the dynamical forces arising from the earth’s rotation, which cause all moving masses in the northern hemisphere to tend to be defier tea toward the right-band side of their ' riie algn that, arc borne by the Cult stream from the tropical seas find their way toward the inner edge of the circulatory drift which mo vi, s ix a ci.ocuvnsr: mnre-nox around the central part of the North *V" a n“ 10 ®.® ea , n • In this central pan. cho flow oi Hi o surface waters is not stoaoy in any direction, and hence the Homing seaweed tends to accumulate tnerc. Jim tendency to accumulate is perhans most observable in the triangular region marked out by the Azores, the Canaries, and the Cairo Verde Islands, but much seaweed ’■= also found to the westward of tile middle part of tins triangular region in an elongated area extending to the seventieth decree meridian of west longitude. "ho abundance of seaweed in tbo

varifitw. fluctuates much with the co mt °f fl Ithe1 the which acciripe yi ! 0r '^ s Presence, but this office to swtefbr aiitt i entic records intori ; 0 , 14 baE evor been neemnuinno^e' 1 60 , a .rcount as materially to oi the oeea 5 ,>n P ass ’ n -? : over this part wt^L eof email aquatic and in* o " o,J rish around the borders h«w- r ®! s *9 Sea. Tnero are iram- ] • varieties of fish, molluscs. • crabs and waterfleas. Almost /J; !a bh- this lifo taker; on the pro- ,/ d. vo ,colour of the masses of yellow weeds m winch it lives. C! fl „r omo „ of these inhabitants of the mV “ as ?° -* ea are found nowhere else. ,‘ ls a transparent shrimp that has ’. e 3 -es on the end of long pedi- * resrs eyes are many-faceted, and oacli facet sheds a brilliant greenish Hunt and SI'AHKIIES US7, A S!»LF.SniD OEM. no waterfleas are extraordinary also, c-orno are totally blind, while others go vO tne opposite extreme and are nearly 2«? J t!oro are some that build nests m which to hatch their young. They form the’ weed into huge balls about oho size of a Dutch cheese. The fash nrls there together with glutinous threads which it exudes from its body, ihoso threads are so strong that a man cannot pul] them apart with his hands. One explorer who brought up in a net one of these fish nests found eiz amaJi fish inside.”

Although the waters about the. SarSea aro generally calm, they are bv no means stationary. The flinging islands of weed rise and fall or shift tneir position according to the dirce~ tion of the wind or the condition of the sea. The great, mass, however, seems as motionless as the land itself.

At night the waters of the Sargasso Sea aro phosphorescent, and the fish and all the marine life shine with this strange light. Now and then great shoals of fish shoot through the narrow lanes between the islands and leave trails of lijght as they slip through the indescribable beauty” of the molten KCBS.