Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/436

 ice. Of these, 367 (or one in five) mentioned kelp or sea-weed east of Cape Horn; 142 mention "rock- weed and drift matter" between the previous meridian and 10° W., and chiefly between 35° and 40° S. " Long kelp " is also found by Australian traders after passing the Cape of Good Hope; 146 logs make mention of it between the meridians of 40° and 120° E. It most abounds along this line, however, between the meridians of 45° and 65° E., and the parallels of 42° and 48° S. These sargassos are sketched with a free hand on Plate IX.

761. A sargasso in the South Pacific.—Sea-weed is frequently mentioned also by the homeward-bound Australian traders on their way to Cape Horn: this collection has (§ 139) already been alluded to. It now appears that instead of three, as stated in former editions of this work, there are really five true sargassos, as shown on Plate IX.

762. Sea-weed about the Falkland Islands.—The weedy space, marked as such, about the Falkland Islands, is probably not a true sargasso. The sea-weed reported there probably comes from the Straits of Magellan, where immense masses of it grow. These straits are so encumbered with sea-weed that steamers find great difficulty in making their way through it. It so encumbers their paddles as to make frequent stoppages necessary.

763. The African sargasso.—The sargasso to the west of the Cape of Good Hope, though small, is perhaps the best defined of them all. Mention is generally made of it in the logs as "rock-weed" and "drift matter." Now when it is recollected that weeds have been found as frequently, nearly (§ 760), in this email space as they have been in the large space between the Cape and Australia, the reader will be able to form a more correct idea as to the relative abundance of weed in these seas of weed.

764. Icebergs.—By going far enough south, icebergs may be found on any meridian; but in searching for them, we can only look where commerce carries our colleagues of the sea. Out of the 1843 tracks traced on the polar side of 35° S., only 109 make mention of ice. Few of these went, except in doubling Cape Horn, beyond the parallel of 55° S., therefore we have not been able to track the ice back into the "chambers of the frost." We can only say that north of 50° antarctic icebergs most abound between the meridians of 15° W. and 55° E.

765. The largest drift farthest.—As a rule, the bergs which are