e
they float and let the currents of air carry them along the same as
the currents of water had done before. Trot thought the argonauts
comical little creatures, with their big eyes and sharp noses, and
to her they looked like a fleet of tiny ships.

It is said that men got their first idea of boats and of how to sail
them from watching these little argonauts.

CHAPTER 10

THE UNDISCOVERED ISLAND

In following the fleet of argonauts, the four explorers had risen
higher in the water and soon found they had wandered to an open
space that seemed to Trot like the flat top of a high hill. The
sands were covered with a growth of weeds so gorgeously colored that
one who had never peered beneath the surface of the sea would
scarcely believe they were not the product of a dye shop. Every
known hue seemed represented in the delicate, fern-like leaves that
swayed softly to and fro as the current moved them. They were not
set close together, these branches of magnificent hues, but were
scattered sparsely over the sandy bottom of the sea so that while
from a distance they seemed thick, a nearer view found them spread
out with ample spaces of sand between them.

In these sandy spaces lay the real attractiveness of the place, for
here were many of those wonders of the deep that have surprised and
interested people in all ages.

First were the starfishes--hundreds of them, it seemed--lying
sleepily on the bottom, with their five or six points extended
outward. They were of various colors, some rich and brilliant,
others of dark brown hues. A few had wound their arms around the
weeds or were creeping slowly from one place to another, in the
latter case turning their points downward and using them as legs.
But most of them were lying motionless, and as Trot looked down upon
them she thought they resembled stars in the sky on a bright night,
except that the blue of the heavens was here replaced by the white
sand, and the twinkling diamond stars by the colored starfish.

"We are near an island," said the Queen, "and that is why so many
starfishes are here, as they love to keep close to shore. Also the
little seahorses love these weeds, and to me they are more
interesting than the starfish."

Trot now noticed the seahorses for the first time. They were quite
small--merely two or three inches high--but had funny little heads
that were shaped much like the head of a horse, and bright,
intelligent eyes. They had no legs, th