t of an
immense marine meadow."

"I think, sir," I interposed at this point, "I read once in the Life of
Columbus, that, when on his first voyage beyond seas from Spain, his
sailors almost mutinied and wanted him to put back on account of their
fancying they could never pass through the weed?"

"They did," replied Mr Marline. "The men thought Columbus had sold his
soul to the spirits of evil, and that they were in an enchanted sea, but
the brave old Genoese navigator surmounted their fears in the end! I
can better, perhaps, explain, Tom, the reason for the weed accumulating
so hereabouts, by likening, as Maury did, the Atlantic Ocean to a basin.
Now, if you put a few small pieces of cork or any other light substance
into a basin, and move your hand round it so as to give the water it
contains a circular motion, the bits of cork will be found to float to
the centre and remain there. Well, here, the Gulf Stream is the
circular motion of our great basin, while the Sargasso Sea is the
centre, and it is in consequence of the continual current circling round
it that the weed stops there in such quantities--as you will see most
likely in a day or two, when the ocean gets rested after the great storm
we have had, which has somewhat put things out of their proper trim."

"And does the weed grow to the bottom?" I asked.

"Bottom? Why, there are no soundings here under four miles, and it
would take a pretty long root to stretch to such a depth! No, the
sargasso weed floats and lives on the surface. When examined closely,
it is found to have an oblong narrow serrated leaf of a pale yellow
colour, resembling somewhat in form a cauliflower stripped of its
leaves, the nodules being composed of a vast number of small branches,
about half an inch long, which shoot out from each other at a sharp
angle, and hence multiply continually towards the outer circumference of
the plant, each extreme point producing a round seed-vessel like a
berry. A great number of little crabs, barnacles, and small shell-fish
are generally found attached to the weed, as Captain Miles mentioned
just now when he said we might find something to eat amidst the branches
of it in an emergency. It is wonderful sometimes to see with what
regularity the weed is arranged across the ocean when the wind blows.
It looks then exactly like a meadow does after it has been fresh mown
and the grass is left upon it in long swathes by the scythe at equal
distances apa