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Article: Sargasso Sea: Where The Eels Meet
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 9, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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The mysterious Sar-gasso Sea has befuddled sailors and
scientists for centuries. Myths about the place have taken on a life
of their own.
In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne wrote of
the Sargasso: "{T}runks of trees, from the Andes or Rocky Mountains,
floated down the Amazon or the Mississippi; numerous spars, the
remains of keels or ships' bottoms, side planks stove in and so
weighted with shells and barnacles that they could not rise above
the surface of the ocean...."
But the Sargasso is not nearly as daunting or menacing as its
legends, which describe it as an "island of lost ships." In reality,
it is a calm, lazy region of the North Atlantic Ocean, the "eye" ...