CHAPTER XVIII.
"On thy unaltering blaze The half-wrecked mariner, his compass lost, Fixes his steady gaze, And steers, undoubting, to the friendly coast; And they who stray in perilous wastes, by night, Are glad when thou dost shine to guide their footsteps right."
Hymn to the North Star.
The following day was Saturday, the 15th, when the little fleet was tendays from Gomera; or it was the sixth morning since the adventurers hadlost sight of the land. The last week had been one of melancholyforebodings, though habit was beginning to assert its influence, and themen manifested openly less uneasiness than they had done in the three orfour previous days. Their apprehensions were getting to be dormant forwant of any exciting and apparent stimulus, though they existed aslatent impulses, in readiness to be roused at the occurrence of anyuntoward event. The wind continued fair, though light--the wholetwenty-four hours' work showing considerably less than a hundred miles,as the true progress west. All this time Columbus kept his attentionfastened on the needles, and he perceived that as the vessels slowlymade their westing, the magnets pointed more and more, though byscarcely palpable changes, in the same direction.
The admiral and Luis, by this time, had fallen into such habits of closecommunication, that they usually rose and slept at the same time. Thoughfar too ignorant of the hazards he ran to feel uneasiness, andconstitutionally, as well as morally, superior to idle alarms, the youngman had got to feel a sort of sportsman's excitement in the result; and,by this time, had not Mercedes existed, he would have been as reluctantto return without seeing Cathay, as Columbus himself. They conversedtogether of their progress and their hopes, without ceasing, and Luistook so much interest in his situation as to begin to learn how todiscriminate in matters that might be supposed to affect its durationand ends.
On the night of the Saturday just mentioned, Columbus and his reputedsecretary were alone on the poop, conversing, as usual, on the signs ofthe times, and of the events of the day.
"The Nina had something to say to you, last evening, Don Christopher,"observed the young man; "I was occupied in the cabin, with my journal,and had no opportunity of knowing what passed."
"Her people had seen a bird or two, that are thought never to go farfrom the land. It is possible that islands are at no great distance, forman hath nowhere passed over any very great extent of sea withoutmeeting with them. We cannot, however, waste the time necessary for asearch, since the glory and profit of ascertaining the situation of agroup of islands would be but a poor compensation for the loss of acontinent."
"Do you still remark those unaccountable changes in the needles, Senor?"
"In this respect there is no change, except that which goeth tocorroborate the phenomenon. My chief apprehension is of the effect onthe people, when the circumstance shall be known."
"Are there no means to persuade them that the needle pointeth thus west,as a sign Providence willeth they should pursue that course, bypersevering in the voyage?"
"This might do, Luis," answered the admiral, smiling, "had not fear sosharpened their wits, that their first question would be an inquiry whyProvidence should deprive us of the means of knowing whither we aretravelling, when it so much wisheth us to go in any particulardirection."
A cry from the watch on deck arrested the discourse, while a suddenbrightness broke on the night, illuminating the vessels and the ocean,as if a thousand lamps were shedding their brilliancy upon thesurrounding portion of the sphere. A ball of fire was glancing athwartthe heavens, and seemed to fall into the sea, at the distance of a fewleagues, or at the limits of the visible horizon. Its disappearance wasfollowed by a gloom as profound as the extraordinary and fleeting lighthad been brilliant. This was only the passage of a meteor; but it wassuch a meteor as men do not see more than once in their lives--if it isseen as often; and the superstitious mariners did not fail to note theincident among the extraordinary omens that accompanied the voyage; someauguring good, and others evil, from the event.
"By St. Iago!" exclaimed Luis, as soon as the light had vanished, "SenorDon Christopher, this voyage of ours doth not seem fated to pass awayunheeded by the elements and other notable powers! Whether theseportents speak in our favor, or not, they speak us any thing but menengaged in an every-day occupation."
"Thus it is with the human mind!" returned Columbus. "Let but its ownerpass beyond the limits of his ordinary habits and duties, and he seesmarvels in the most simple changes of the weather--in a flash oflightning--a blast of air--or the passage of a meteor; little heedingthat these miracles exist in his own consciousness, and have noconnection with the every-day laws of nature. These sights are by nomeans uncommon, especially in low latitudes; and they augur neither fornor against our enterprise."
"Except, Senor Almirante, as they may beset the spirits and haunt theimaginations of the men. Sancho telleth me, that a brooding discontentis growing among them; and that, while they seem so tranquil, theirdisrelish of the voyage is hourly getting to be more and more decided."
Notwithstanding this opinion of the admiral, and some pains that heafterward took to explain the phenomenon to the people on deck, thepassage of the meteor had, indeed, not only produced a deep impressionon them, but its history went from watch to watch, and was the subjectof earnest discourse throughout the night. But the incident produced noopen manifestation of discontent; a few deeming it a propitious omen,though most secretly considered it an admonition from heaven against anyimpious attempts to pry into those mysteries of nature that, accordingto their notions, God, in his providence, had not seen fit to reveal toman.
All this time the vessels were making a steady progress toward the west.The wind had often varied, both in force and direction, but never in amanner to compel the ships to shorten sail, or to deviate from what theadmiral believed to be the proper course. They supposed themselves to besteering due west, but, owing to the variation, were in fact now holdinga west-and-by-south course, and were gradually getting nearer to thetrades; a movement in which they had also been materially aided by theforce of the currents. In the course of the 15th and 16th of the month,the fleet had got about two hundred miles further from Europe, Columbustaking the usual precaution to lessen the distance in the publicreckoning. The latter day was a Sunday; and the religious offices, whichwere then seldom neglected in a Christian ship, produced a deep andsublime effect on the feelings of the adventurers. Hitherto the weatherhad partaken of the usual character of the season, and a few clouds,with a slight drizzling rain, had relieved the heat; but these soonpassed away, and were succeeded by a soft south-east wind, that seemedto come charged with the fragrance of the land. The men united in theevening chants, under these propitious circumstances; the vesselsdrawing near each other, as if it might be to form one temple in honorof God, amid the vast solitudes of an ocean that had seldom, if ever,been whitened by a sail. Cheerfulness and hope succeeded to this act ofdevotion, and both were speedily heightened by a cry from the look-outaloft, who pointed ahead and to leeward, as if he beheld some object ofpeculiar interest in that quarter. The helms were varied a little; andin a few minutes the vessels entered into a field of sea-weed, thatcovered the ocean for miles. This sign of the vicinity of land wasreceived by the mariners with a shout; and the very beings who had soshortly before been balancing on the verge of despair, now became elatewith joy.
These weeds were indeed of a character to awaken hope in the bosom ofthe most experienced mariner. Although some had lost their freshness, agreat proportion of them were still green, and had the appearance ofhaving been quite recently separated from their parent rocks, or theearth that had nourished them. No doubt was now entertained, even by thepilots, of the vicinity of land. Tunny-fish were also seen in numbers,and the people of the Nina were sufficiently fortunate to strike one.The seamen embraced each other, with tears in their eyes, and many ahand was squeezed in friendly congratulation, that the previous daywould have been withheld in surly misanthropy.
"An
d do you partake of all this hope, Don Christopher?" demanded Luis;"are we really to expect the Indies as a consequence of these marineplants, or is the expectation idle?"
"The people deceive themselves in supposing our voyage near an end.Cathay must yet be very distant from us. We have come but three hundredand sixty leagues since losing sight of Ferro, which, according to mycomputations, cannot be much more than a third of our journey. Aristotlementioned that certain vessels of Cadiz were forced westward by heavygales, until they reached a sea covered with weeds, a spot where thetunny-fish abounded. This is the fish, thou must know, Luis, that theancients fancied could see better with the right eye than with the left,because it hath been noted that, in passing the Bosphorus, they evertake the right shore in proceeding toward the Euxine, and the left inreturning"--
"By St. Francis! there can be no wonder if creatures so one-sided intheir vision, should have strayed thus far from home," interrupted thelight-hearted Luis, laughing. "Doth Aristotle, or the other ancients,tell us how they regarded beauty; or whether their notions of justicewere like those of the magistrate who hath been fed by both parties?"
"Aristotle speaketh only of the presence of the fish in the weedy ocean,as we see them before us. The mariners of Cadiz fancied themselves inthe neighborhood of sunken islands, and, the wind permitting, made thebest of their way back to their own shores. Thia place, in my judgment,we have now reached; but I expect to meet with no land, unless, indeed,we may happen to fall in with some island that lieth off here in theocean, as a sort of beacon between the shore of Europe and that of Asia.Doubtless land is not distant, whence these weeds have drifted, but Iattach little importance to its sight, or discovery. Cathay is my aim,Don Luis, and I am a searcher for continents, not islands."
It is now known that while Columbus was right in his expectations of notfinding a continent so early, he was mistaken in supposing land to lieany where in that vicinity. Whether these weeds are collected by thecourse of the currents, or whether they rise from the bottom, torn fromtheir beds by the action of the water, is not yet absolutelyascertained, though the latter is the most common opinion, extensiveshoals existing in this quarter of the ocean. Under the lattersupposition, the mariners of Cadiz were nearer the truth than is firstapparent, a sunken island having all the characteristics of a shoal, butthose which may be supposed to be connected with the mode of formation.
No land was seen. The vessels continued their progress at a rate butlittle varying from five miles the hour, shoving aside the weeds, whichat times accumulated in masses, under their bows, but which could offerno serious obstacle to their progress. As for the admiral, so lofty werehis views, so steady his opinions concerning the great geographicalproblem he was about to solve, and so determined his resolution topersevere to the end, that he rather hoped to miss than to fall in withthe islands, that he fancied could be at no great distance. The day andnight carried the vessels rather more than one hundred miles to thewestward, placing the fleet not far from midway between the meridiansthat bounded the extreme western and eastern margins of the twocontinents, though still much nearer to Africa than to America,following the parallel of latitude on which it was sailing. As the windcontinued steady, and the sea was as smooth as a river, the threevessels kept close together, the Pinta, the swiftest craft, reducing hercanvas for that purpose. During the afternoon's watch of the day thatsucceeded that of the meeting with the weeds, which was Monday, the 17thSeptember, or the eighth day after losing sight of Ferro, Martin AlonzoPinzon hailed the Santa Maria, and acquainted the pilot on deck of hisintention to get the amplitude of the sun, as soon as the luminaryshould be low enough, with a view to ascertain how far his needlesretained their virtue. This observation, one of no unusual occurrenceamong mariners, it was thought had better be made in all the caravelssimultaneously, that any error of one might be corrected by the greateraccuracy of the rest.
Columbus and Luis were in a profound sleep in their cots, taking theirsiestas, when the former was awakened by such a shake of the shoulder asseamen are wont to give, and are content to receive. It never requiredmore than a minute to arouse the great navigator from his deepestslumbers to the fullest possession of his faculties, and he was awake inan instant.
"Senor Don Almirante," said Sancho, who was the intruder, "it is time tobe stirring: all the pilots are on deck in readiness to measure theamplitude of the sun, as soon as the heavenly bodies are in their rightplaces. The west is already beginning to look like a dying dolphin, andere many minutes it will be gilded like the helmet of a Moorish Sultan."
"An amplitude measured!" exclaimed Columbus, quitting his cot on theinstant. "This is news, indeed! Now we may look for such a stir amongthe people, as hath not been witnessed since we left Cadiz!"
"So it hath appeared to me, your Excellency, for the mariner hath somesuch faith in the needle as the churchman bestoweth on the goodness ofthe Son of God. The people are in a happy humor at this moment, but thesaints only know what is to come!"
The admiral awoke Luis, and in five minutes both were at their customarystation on the poop. Columbus had gained so high a reputation for skillin navigation, his judgment invariably proving right, even when opposedto those of all the pilots in the fleet, that the latter were not sorryto perceive he had no intention to take an instrument in hand, butseemed disposed to leave the issue to their own skill and practice. Thesun slowly settled, the proper time was watched, and then these rudemariners set about their task, in the mode that was practised in theirtime. Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the most ready and best taught of them all,was soonest through with his task. From his lofty stand, the admiralcould overlook the deck of the Pinta, which vessel was sailing but a fewhundred yards from the Santa Maria, and it was not long before heobserved her commander moving from one compass to another, in the mannerof a man who was disturbed. Another minute or two elapsed, when theskiff of the caravel was launched; a sign was made for the admiral'svessel to shorten sail, and Martin Alonzo was soon forcing his waythrough the weeds that still covered the surface of the ocean, towardthe Santa Maria. As he gained the deck of the latter ship, on one of hersides, his kinsman, Vicente Yanez, the commander of the Nina, did thesame thing on the other. In the next instant both were at the side ofthe great navigator, on the poop, whither they had been followed bySancho Ruiz and Bartolemeo Roldan, the two pilots of the admiral.
"What meaneth this haste, good Martin Alonzo?" calmly asked Columbus:"thou and thy brother, Vicente Yanez, and these honest pilots, hurrytoward me as if ye had cheering tidings from Cathay."
"God only knoweth, Senor Almirante, if any of us are ever to bepermitted to see that distant land, or any shore that is only to bereached by mariners through the aid of a needle," answered the elderPinzon, with a haste that almost rendered him breathless. "Here have weall been at the comparison of the instruments, and we find them, withouta single exception, varying from the true north, by, at least, a fullpoint!"
"That would be a marvel, truly! Ye have made some oversight in yourobservations, or have been heedless in the estimates."
"Not so, noble admiral," put in Vicente Yanez, to sustain his brother."Even the magnets are becoming false to us; and as I mentioned thecircumstance to the oldest steersman of my craft, he assures me that thenorth star did not tally with his instrument throughout the night!"
"Others say the same, here," added Ruiz--"nay, some are ready to swearthat the wonder hath been noted ever since we entered the sea of weeds!"
"This may be so, Senores," answered Columbus, with an undisturbed mien,"and yet no evil follow. We all know that the heavenly bodies have theirrevolutions, some of which no doubt are irregular, while others are morein conformity with certain settled rules. Thus it is with the sunhimself, which passeth once around the earth in the short space oftwenty-four hours, while no doubt he hath other, and more subtilemovements, that are unknown to us, on account of the exceeding distanceat which he is placed in the heavens. Many astronomers have thought thatthey have been able to detect these va
riations, spots having been seenon the disc of the orb at times, which have disappeared, as if hidbehind the body of the luminary. I think it will be found that the northstar hath made some slight deviation in its position, and that it willcontinue thus to move for some short period, after which, no doubt, itwill be found returning to its customary position, when it will be seenthat its temporary eccentricity hath in no manner disturbed its usualharmony with the needles. Note the star well throughout the night, andin the morning let the amplitude be again taken, when I think the truthof my conjecture will be proved by the regularity of the movement of theheavenly body. So far from being discouraged by this sign, we oughtrather to rejoice that we have made a discovery, which, of itself, willentitle the expedition to the credit of having added materially to thestores of science!"
The pilots were fain to be satisfied with this solution of their doubts,in the absence of any other means of accounting for them. They remainedlong on the poop discoursing of the strange occurrence; and as men, evenin their blindest moods, usually reason themselves into eithertranquillity or apprehension, they fortunately succeeded in doing thefirst on this occasion. With the men there was more difficulty, for whenit became known to the crews of the three vessels that the needles hadbegun to deviate from their usual direction, a feeling akin to despairseized on them, almost without exception. Here Sancho was of materialservice. When the panic was at its height, and the people were on thepoint of presenting themselves to the admiral, with a demand that theheads of the caravels should be immediately turned toward thenorth-east, he interposed with his knowledge and influence to calm thetumult. The first means this trusty follower had recourse to, in orderto bring his shipmates back to reason, was to swear, withoutreservation, that he had frequently known the needle and the north starto vary, having witnessed the fact with his own eyes on twenty previousoccasions, and no harm to come of it. He invited the elder and moreexperienced seamen to make an accurate observation of the differencewhich already existed, which was quite a point of the compass, and thento see, in the morning, if this difference had not increased in the samedirection.
"This," he continued, "will be a certain sign, my friends, that the staris in motion, since we can all see that the compasses are just wherethey have been ever since we left Palos de Moguer. When one of twothings is in motion, and it is certain which stands still, there can beno great difficulty in saying which is the uneasy one. Now, look thouhere, Martin Martinez," who was one of the most factious of thedisaffected; "words are of little use when men can prove their meaningby experiments like this. Thou seest two balls of spun-yarn on thiswindlass; well, it is wanted to be known which of them remains there,and which is taken away. I remove the smallest ball, thou perceivest,and the largest remains; from which it followeth, as only one canremain, and that one is the larger ball, why the smaller must be takenaway. I hold no man fit to steer a caravel, by needle or by star, whowill deny a thing that is proven as plainly and as simply as this!"
Martin Martinez, though a singularly disaffected man, was no logician;and, Sancho's oaths backing his demonstrations to the letter, his partysoon became the most numerous. As there is nothing so encouraging to thedull-minded and discontented mutineer, as to perceive that he is of thestrongest side, so is there nothing so discouraging as to find himselfin the minority; and Sancho so far prevailed as to bring most of hisfellows round to a belief in the expediency of waiting to ascertain thestate of things in the morning, before they committed themselves by anyact of rashness.
"Thou hast done well, Sancho," said Columbus, an hour later, when themariner came secretly to make his nightly report of the state of feelingamong the people. "Thou hast done well in all but these oaths, taken toprove that thou hast witnessed this phenomenon before. Much as I havenavigated the earth, and careful as have been my observations, and ampleas have been my means, never before have I known the needle to vary fromits direction toward the north star: and I think that which hath escapedmy notice would not be apt to attract thine."
"You do me injustice, Senor Don Almirante, and have inflicted a woundtouching my honesty, that a dobla only can cure"--
"Thou knowest, Sancho, that no one felt more alarm when the deviation ofthe needle was first noted, than thyself. So great, in sooth, was thyapprehension, that thou even refused to receive gold, a weakness ofwhich thou art usually exceedingly innocent."
"When the deviation was first noted, your Excellency, this was trueenough; for, not to attempt to mislead one who hath more penetrationthan befalleth ordinary men, I did fancy that our hopes of ever seeingSpain or St. Clara de Moguer again, were so trifling as to make it of nogreat consequence who was admiral, and who a simple helmsman."
"And yet thou wouldst now brazen it out, and deny thy terror! Didst thounot swear to thy fellows, that thou hadst often seen this deviationbefore; ay, even on as many as twenty occasions?"
"Well, Excellency, this is a proof that a cavalier may make a verycapital viceroy and admiral, and know all about Cathay, without havingthe clearest notions of history! I told my shipmates, Don Christopher,that I had noted these changes before this night, and if tied to thestake to be burnt as a martyr, as I sometimes think will one day be thefate of all of us superfluously honest men, I would call on yourself,Senor Almirante, as the witness of the truth of what I had sworn to."
"Thou wouldst, then, summon a most unfortunate witness, Sancho, since Ineither practise false oaths myself, nor encourage their use in others."
"Don Luis de Bobadilla y Pedro de Munos, here, would then be myreliance," said the imperturbable Sancho; "for proof a man hath a rightto, when wrongfully accused, and proof I will have. Your Excellency willplease to remember that it was on the night of Saturday, the 15th, thatI first notified your worship of this very change, and that we are nowat the night of Monday, the 17th. I swore to twenty times noting thisphenomenon, as it is called, in those eight-and-forty hours, when itwould have been nearer the truth had I said two hundred times. SantaMaria! I did nothing but note it for the first few hours!"
"Go to, Sancho; thy conscience hath its latitude as well as itslongitude; but thou hast thy uses. Now, that thou understandest thereason of the variation, however, thou wilt encourage thy fellows, aswell as keep up thy spirits."
"I make no question that it is all as your Excellency sayeth about thestar's travelling," returned Sancho; "and it hath crossed my mind thatit is possible we are nearer Cathay than we have thought; this movementbeing made by some evil-disposed spirits on purpose to make us lose theway."
"Go to thy hammock, knave, and bethink thee of thy sins; leaving thereasons of these mysteries to those who are better taught. There is thydobla, and see that thou art discreet."
In the morning every being in the three caravels waited impatiently forthe results of the new observations. As the wind continued favorable,though far from fresh, and a current was found setting to the westward,the vessels had made, in the course of twenty-four hours, more than ahundred and fifty miles, which rendered the increase in the variationperceptible, thus corroborating a prophecy of Columbus, that had beenventured on previous observation. So easily are the ignorant the dupesof the plausible, that this solution temporarily satisfied all doubts,and it was generally believed that the star had moved, while the needleremained true.
How far Columbus was misled by his own logic in this affair, is still amatter of doubt. That he resorted to deceptions which might beconsidered innocent, in order to keep up the courage of his companions,is seen in the fact of the false, or public reckoning; but there is noproof that this was one of the instances in which he had recourse tosuch means. No person of any science believed, even when the variationof the compass was unknown, that the needle pointed necessarily to thepolar star; the coincidence in the direction of the magnetic needle andthe position of the heavenly body, being thought accidental; and thereis nothing extravagant in supposing that the admiral--who had theinstrument in his possession, and was able to ascertain that none of itsvirtue was visibly lost, w
hile he could only reason from supposedanalogy concerning the evolutions of the star--should imagine that afriend he had ever found so faithful, had now deserted him, leaving himdisposed to throw the whole mystery of the phenomenon on the moredistant dwellers in space. Two opinions have been ventured concerningthe belief of the celebrated navigator, in the theory he advanced onthis occasion; the one affirming, and the other denying his good faithin urging the doctrine he had laid down. Those who assert the latter,however, would seem to reason a little loosely themselves, theirargument mainly resting on the improbability of a man like Columbusuttering so gross a scientific error, at a time when science itself knewno more of the existence of the phenomenon, than is known to-day of itscause. Still it is possible that the admiral may not have had anysettled notions on the subject, even while he was half inclined to hopehis explanation was correct; for it is certain that, in the midst of theastronomical and geographical ignorance of his age, this extraordinaryman had many accurate and sublime glimpses of truths that were still inembryo as respected their development and demonstration by the lights ofprecise and inductive reasoning.
Fortunately, if the light brought with it the means of ascertaining withcertainty the variation of the needle, it also brought the means ofperceiving that the sea was still covered with weeds, and other signsthat were thought to be encouraging, as connected with the vicinity ofland. The current being now in the same direction as the wind, thesurface of the ocean was literally as smooth as that of an inland sheetof water, and the vessels were enabled to sail, without danger, within afew fathoms of each other.
"This weed, Senor Almirante," called out the elder Pinzon, "hath theappearance of that which groweth on the banks of streams, and I doubtthat we are near to the mouth of some exceeding great river!"
"This may be so," returned Columbus; "than which there can be no morecertain sign than may be found in the taste of the water. Let a bucketbe drawn, that we may know."
While Pepe was busied in executing this order, waiting until the vesselhad passed through a large body of weeds for that purpose, the quick eyeof the admiral detected a crab struggling on the surface of thefresh-looking plants, and he called to the helmsman in sufficientseason, to enable him so far to vary his course, as to allow the animalto be taken.
"Here is a most precious prize, good Martin Alonzo," said Columbus,holding the crab between a finger and thumb, that the other might seeit. "These animals are never known to go further than some eightyleagues from the land; and see, Senor, yonder is one of the white tropicbirds, which, it is said, never sleep on the water! Truly, God favorethus; and what rendereth all these tokens more grateful, is thecircumstance of their coming from the west--the hidden, unknown,mysterious west!"
A common shout burst from the crews at the appearance of these signs,and again the beings who lately had been on the verge of despair, werebuoyed up with hope, and ready to see propitious omens in even the mostcommon occurrences of the ocean. All the vessels had hauled up bucketsof water, and fifty mouths were immediately wet with the brine; and sogeneral was the infatuation, that every man declared the sea far lesssalt than usual. So complete, indeed, was the delusion created by thesecheerful expectations, and so thoroughly had all concern in connectionwith the moving star been removed by the sophism of Sancho, that evenColumbus, habitually so wary, so reasoning, so calm, amid his loftiestviews, yielded to his native enthusiasm, and fancied that he was aboutto discover some vast island, placed midway between Asia and Europe; anhonor not to be despised, though it fell so far short of his higherexpectations.
"Truly, friend Martin Alonzo," he said, "this water seemeth to have lessof the savor of the sea, than is customary at a distance from the outletof large rivers!"
"My palate telleth the same tale, Senor Almirante. As a further sign,the Nina hath struck another tunny, and her people are at this momenthoisting it in."
Shout succeeded shout, as each new encouraging proof appeared; and theadmiral, yielding to the ardor of the crews, ordered sail to be pressedon all the vessels, that each might endeavor to outstrip the others, inthe hope of being the first to discover the expected island. This strifesoon separated the caravels, the Pinta easily outsailing the other two,while the Santa Maria and the Nina came on more slowly, in her rear. Allwas gaiety and mirth, the livelong day, on board those isolated vessels,that, unknown to those they held, were navigating the middle of theAtlantic, with horizon extending beyond horizon, without change in thewatery boundary, as circle would form without circle, on the sameelement, were a vast mass of solid matter suddenly dropped into the sea.