Probably few of the thinking inhabitants of dry land, with all their craving¹ for tales of the marvellous, the gloomy, and the gigantic, have in these later centuries of the world’s history given much thought to the conditions of constant warfare² existing beneath the surface of the ocean. As readers of ancient classics well know, the fathers of literature gave much attention to the vast, awe-inspiring inhabitants of the sea, investing and embellishing³ the few fragments of fact concerning them which were available with a thousand fantastic inventions of their own naïve imaginations, until there emerged, chief and ruler of them all, the Kraken, Leviathan, or whatever other local name was considered to best convey in one word their accumulated ideas of terror. In lesser⁵ degree, but still worthy⁶ compeers of the fire-breathing dragon and sky-darkening “Rukh” of earth and sky, a worthy host of attendant sea-monsters were conjured⁷ up, until, apart from the terror of loneliness, of irresistible⁸ fury and instability that the sea presented to primitive⁹ peoples, the awful nature of its supposed inhabitants made the contemplation of an ocean journey sufficient to appal¹¹ the stoutest¹³ heart. A better understanding of this aspect of the sea to early voyagers may be obtained from some of the artistic¹⁴ efforts of those days than anything else. There you shall see gigantic creatures with human faces, teeth like foot-long wedges,

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