ow
and stem covered with bright brass; over the rudder there hung a long
piece of network ornamented with blue glass beads: flowers and
arabesques were carved on the boards at each end of the vessel, which
had one low mast with a single sail. It is the national belief in
England that ugliness is the necessary concomitant of utility, but for
my own part I confess that I delight in redundant ornament, and I liked
my old boat the better and was convinced that it did not sail a bit the
worse because it was pleasing to the eye.

We rowed away towards Imbros, and passed in our course a curious line of
waves, which looked like a straight whirlpool, if such an epithet may be
used; for where the mighty stream of the Dardanelles poured forth into
the Egean Sea, the two waters did not immediately mix together, but
rolled the one over the other in a long line which seemed as if it would
suck down into its snaky vortex anything which approached it. It was not
dangerous, however, for we rowed along it and across it; but still it
had a look about it which made me feel rather glad than sorry when we
had lost sight of its long, straight, curling line of waves.

As I sat in my beautifully-shaped and ornamented boat, which looked like
those represented in antique sculptures, with its high stem and lofty
prow, I thought how little changed things were in these latitudes since
the brave Captain Jason passed this way in the good ship Argo; and if an
old author who wrote on the Hermetic philosophy may be taken as
authority, that worthy's errand was much the same as mine; for he
maintains that the golden fleece was no golden fleece at all, "for who,"
says he, like a sensible man, "ever saw a sheep of gold?" But what Jason
sought was a famous volume written in golden letters upon the skins of
sheep, wherein was described the whole science of alchemy, and that the
man who should possess himself of that inestimable volume should conquer
the green dragon, and being able by help of the grand magisterium to
transmute all metals, and draw from the alembic the precious drops of
the elixir vitae, men and nations and languages would bow down before him
as the prince of the pleasures of this world.

In the afternoon we arrived at the island of Imbros. The Turkish pilot
would go no farther, for he said there would be a storm. I saw no
appearance of the kind, but it was of no use talking to him; he had made
up his mind, so we drew the boat up on the sand