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Show "T. II - III - , - Bes e.r is o i' the Ocean Oceans, llko continents, havo their deserts. On tho high soas there aro vnst spaces whoso waves hnvo never boon parted by thoprow of n sailing vessel or lashod by tho propeller of 'a steamer; Immense solitudes where tho llnp of a sail Is never heard nor tho strident cry of a slron; vorltnblo des-orts, des-orts, whoso sllonco Is broken only by tho howling of tho wind and tho roar of fho waves which havo been vainly pursuing ono nnothcr slnco tho day of croation. Thoso deserts Ho forgotten betwixt tho narrow ocoan highways traveled by vessels. In such wasto places of tho sea a disabled ship, driven out of Its courso by n hwrrlcnno, mny drift for months, tossed by tho ceaseless ground swell, without being able to hall assistance; her only chnnco of cscapo is tho possibility that soma oceanic current may drag her Into a moro frequent region. Tho gradual but constant dlsappoar-anco dlsappoar-anco of sailing ships mado tho ocean moro of n desert than before. Sailing vessels had their established routes in nccordanco with winds, currents and seasons; tho gaps between tho routes tnkon by outward-bound and homo-ward-bound ships wero often considerable; consid-erable; moreover, tho capricious elements ele-ments not Infrequently played tho mischief mis-chief with nautical instructions, nnd, ns a result, the field of operations for ocean shipping was vastly expanded. This Is no longer truo to-day. Tho liner goes straight ahead, In deflnnco of wind nnd wavo; tho ports between which sho piles arc great Industrial or commercial centers, whither como numberless railways, nerving as pro longations of the linos of navigation. Tho ocean highways arc, therefore, anything but numerous. Tho most frequented of ocoans is tho Atlantic. Apart from tho polar sens, wo seo that In its northern part there Is only one desert zono a dreary wasto of waters between "tho routo from Europo to tho United States or Canada Can-ada and those from Europo to tho Antilles. In the south, between tho routes from South America or tho western American coast and tho routes from South Africa, cxtondd a desert occasionally occa-sionally traversed-. by tho steamers of tho lines from Capo Town and Mozambique, Mo-zambique, which, When tho coffeo season sea-son Is nt its height in Brazil, cross tho Atlantic for cargoes nt Itlo Janeiro Jan-eiro or Santos. Tho Indian ocean Is frequented only in tho north, by lines out of India ana Indo-Chlna, and a littlo In tho west by liners from Occanlca, which qall at Colombo and then make straight for Australia. Two lines, each with a steamer a month; follow a slender lane from Austrnlla to Cape Town. Tho Prtclllc Is tho Sahara of great cas. Saving only tho stcnrashlps from tho far east to California and British Colombia, a lino from Sydnoy to San Francisco, and a one-horso lino (with sailings four or llvo times a year) between Tahiti and tho United Stntes save for these moro ribbon-llko ribbon-llko streaks tho Pacific is a desert. Only a fow native canoes ply daringly dar-ingly from Island to Island In archipelagoes arch-ipelagoes girt round with coral reef3 veritable ocean gravoyards, tho terror ter-ror of sea-faring men. |