LIFE A N D V O Y A G E S
140
OF
[BOOK
III
served, were strong of wing, and might venture far to sea; but such small birds were too feeble to fly far, and their singing showed that they were not exhausted by their flight. On the following day there was either a profound calm, or light winds from the southwest.
The
far as the eye could
reach, was covered with weeds; a phenomenon, often observed in this part of the ocean, which has sometimes the appearance of a vast inundated meadow.
This has been attributed to immense
quantities of submarine plants, which grow at the bottom of the sea until ripe, when they are detached by the motion of the waves and currents, and rise to the surface.*
These fields of weeds
were at first regarded with great satisfaction, but at length they became, in many places, so dense and matted, as in some degree to impede the sailing of the ships, which must have been under very little headway.
The crews now called to mind some tale
about the frozen ocean, where ships were said to be sometimes fixed immovable.
They endeavored, therefore, to avoid as much
as possible these floating masses, lest some disaster of the kind might happen to t h e m s e l v e s . †Others considered these weeds as proof that the sea was growing shallower, and began to talk of lurking rocks, and shoals, and treacherous quicksands ; and of the danger of running aground, as it were, in the midst of the ocean, where their vessels might rot and fall to pieces, far out of the track of human aid, and without any shore where the crews might take refuge.
They had evidently some confused notion of
the ancient story of the sunken island of Atalantis, and feared that they were arriving at that part of the ocean where naviga-
* Humboldt, Personal Narrative, book i. cap. I. †Hist. del. Almirante, cap. 18.