a station for the ocean telegraph in the equally imaginary island of
Jacquet, which has only lately disappeared from the charts. With every
step in knowledge the line of fancied stopping-places rearranged itself,
the fictitious names flitting from place to place on the maps, and
sometimes duplicating themselves. Where the tradition itself has vanished
we find that the names with which it associated itself are still assigned,
as in case of Brazil and the Antilles, to wholly different localities.

The order of the tales in the present work follows roughly the order of
development, giving first the legends which kept near the European shore,
and then those which, like St. Brandan's or Antillia, were assigned to the
open sea or, like Norumbega or the Isle of Demons, to the very coast of
America. Every tale in this book bears reference to some actual legend,
followed more or less closely, and the authorities for each will be found
carefully given in the appendix for such readers as may care to follow the
subject farther. It must be remembered that some of these imaginary
islands actually remained on the charts of the British admiralty until
within a century. If even the exact science of geographers retained them
thus long, surely romance should embalm them forever.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.



Contents

I. The Story of Atlantis

II. Taliessin of the Radiant Brow