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Show I t Ludicrous Tales Told I r """ of the Sargasso Sea. it Probably no portion of tho globe's " (surface has afforded a richer field for M Vth. Imaginative writer than tho Sar- ftS Itasso Bea, that portion of tho Atlantic a ocean lying between 1C and 3H degrees M north latitude and 30 and Efl dogreca SJj , west longitude. 1 During tho rocont Spanish-American jjM war somo of the newspaper reporters, m sending their Imaginations soaring m wildly over tho Sargasso sea, met M ' stranger visions than did Milton In m Paradlso or Danto In tho depths of lull lu-ll ferno. A Boston dally contained an m article anticipating tho naal battle Kg that occurred at Santiago. Tho au-m au-m thor. giving free rein to his fancy, SjS said: m "Tho battlo will bo fought on tho m northern edgo of that strange and H mysterious part of tho Atlantic called M tho Sargasso sea. It Is not generally 8 . known that within a week's sail from M Now York Is a vast and trackless m waste, unexplored by tho hardiest sail- 1 ors. uncrossed by tho stateliest ships, ffi a monster mass of .floating debris, KB consisting of growing seaweed, bloom- m ing and blossoming plants, creeping U2 anu" twining vinos, a float Island of M vcrduro almost as largo as tho state of m Texas, forming a solid barrier against )m navigation. . . . The Spanish com- Ijj i mander will very likely uso this mass jl, t floating nod to protect his flnnks 3f and roar from attack." It Is literal! yj "o that a paper would print such ludl M crous trasli that tho merest school ffl child would at once recogulzo as ut- Wl tcrly false. r Another noston dally copied from ?H tlio Buffalo Commercial this most ab- M surd account of a harquo In passago 8 from Rosarlo to Philadelphia during at - which It had "a strango experience In tho woll known but seldom visited and much dreaded Sargasso sea. . . . Nineteen days wcro syent In a desper nto battlo with the floating seaweed and profuse Horn. . . . Wo woro actually driven back by Its force. Some of tho creepers worn at least 100 feet long, and they seized upon tho bowsprit, spars, davlta and everything every-thing Into which they could entangle thomselves." Any child who over saw the ocean would naturally reason that It bears on no part of Its surface "blooming and blossoming plnnts." Tho Sargasso Sargas-so sea differ a In no wlso from any other oth-er part of tho Atlantic, excepting that It Is so surrounded by currents thnt tho alga known ns Sargassum bac-clferum bac-clferum floats heio In somewhat greater quantities tnan elsewhere. It Is also a section of the occnu lying without tho rnngo of constant trado winds, so that sailing vessels aro sometimes liable to become becalmed, and ono can well realize that a carpot of seaweed upon tho surfaco of tho water, when there is no wind to fill tho sails, will tend to somewhat Impede a ship's progress. But "n solid barrier against navigation" tho slender seaweed la not, for, notwithstanding tho authorities authori-ties quoted, through tho Sargasso sea lies tho southern passage from Europo to America for sailing vessels In win-tor. win-tor. An Intimate acquaintance of tho writer, a worthy old sea captain, says that In his numerous voyages across that "unexplored, trackless wnsto" ho nover could have experienced tho difficulties dif-ficulties described unless ho had sailed his vessel bottom upwards. |