However slowly these changes may be going on, they point to a time when a new ocean will encircle new lands, and new animal and vegetable forms arise within its bosom. Of what nature and how gifted these races yet slumbering in the lap of time may be, He only knows whose eye penetrates through all eternity; but we cannot doubt that they will be superior to the present denizens of the ocean.
Hitherto the annals of the earth-rind have shown us uninterrupted progress; why, then, should the future be ruled by different laws? At first the sea only produces weeds, shells, crustacea; then the fishes and reptiles appear; and the cetaceans close the vista. But is this the last word, the last manifestation of oceanic life, or is it not to be expected that the future seas will be peopled with beings ranking as high above the whale or dolphin as these rank above the giant saurians of the past?
[PART III.]
THE
PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
[CHAP. XXIII.]
Maritime Discoveries of the Phœnicians.—Expedition of Hanno.—Circumnavigation of Africa under the Pharaoh Necho.—Colæus of Samos.—Pytheas of Massilia.—Expedition of Nearchus.—Circumnavigation of Hindostan under the Ptolemies.—Voyages of Discovery of the Romans.—Consequences of the Fall of the Roman Empire.—Amalfi.—Pisa.—Venice.—Genoa.—Resumption of Maritime Intercourse between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.—Discovery of the Mariner's Compass.—Marco Polo.
Among the nations of antiquity, navigation, as may well be supposed, was in a very rude and imperfect state. Unacquainted with the mariner's compass, which during the darkest and most tempestuous nights safely leads the modern seaman over the pathless ocean, the sparkling constellations of a serene sky, or the position of the sun, were the only guides of the ancient navigator. He therefore rarely ventured to lose sight of land, but cautiously steering his little bark along the shore, was subject to all the delays and dangers of coast navigation. Even under the mild sky and in the calm waters of the Mediterranean, it was only during the summer months that he dared to leave the port; to brave the fury of the wintry winds was a boldness he never could have thought of. Under such adverse circumstances, it is surely far less astonishing that the geographical knowledge of the ancients was so extremely limited when compared with ours, than that with means so scanty they yet should have known so much of the boundaries of ocean.