FOOTNOTES:
[1] This is related by the Greek historian Herodotus, and has often been denied, especially by the older writers; but the “Encyclopædia Britannica” gives it credence, and tells us that the latest and best critic of the geography of Herodotus, Major Rennel, maintains the possibility of such a voyage, and believes it was made. He argues that the construction of their ships, with flat bottoms and low masts, enabled these hardy voyagers to keep close to the land, and to enter all the rivers and harbors for food and water. I think, therefore, that we may believe that Herodotus recorded what really happened, even if we reject some details.
[2] This is not a Norse, but an Irish name, familiar to us as Barney.
[3] The success of this most hazardous venture, although its crew numbered thirteen, is equal to the success of Columbus’s first voyage, although it began on Friday! “Luck” has no show when it is pitted against pluck.
[4] An example of the so-called forty-bank galley is illustrated, so far as its forward end will show it, in the picture of the ship of Ptolemy Philopator, on [page 43]. The forty “banks” appear to be groups of oars in a few tiers.
[5] Three other terms of similar sound need explanation. The galiot was a small, fast galley of the Levant. The gallivat was a large, swift, two-masted, armed sail-boat used by Malay pirates. The galleon was any Spanish ship sailing to and from the Spanish main; hence, especially a treasure-ship.
[6] It was known later as the Invincible Armada.
[7] It does not follow that these creatures are conscious of this pressure, any more than we are of the pressure upon us of the fourteen pounds to the square inch of our atmosphere. The point is that they do feel it when they rise upward to a point where the pressure is distinctly less, just as we are conscious of a difference when we ascend in a balloon or climb a very high mountain, and after a time we find that we cannot go any farther. Land animals therefore have a vertical limit to their distribution as well as sea animals, and for analogous reasons.—E. I.