About alberto de leon(Atlantis The Lost Continent)vox-81 http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b36915/ http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ncps:@field(DOCID+@lit(ABS1821-0012-659)):: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ncps:1:./temp/~ammem_HIB5:: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ncps:1:./temp/~ammem_bvYo:: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ncps:1:./temp/~ammem_d7NG:: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ncps:5:./temp/~ammem_d7NG:: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?ncps:6:./temp/~ammem_d7NG:: ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................![The empire of Atlantis [map]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sTATsMc64C8T_qHjPdKoXIbUGYz1vNcZEhePjtuPRFig-0f4kkjnl_Yjo0JxmsFlzNaC1CbEqh2RWz0APoXr1nIqguojN-fWO58oV6B1MueQNJUBKgraG63RkCb8PsnXPDIIujPwKemM8nB6xP=s0-d)
.................................................................................................................................................................... Atlantis, the Antediluvian TIhrlcl. By Ignatius Donnelly.
New York: Harper & Brothers. 1882.
In this interesting book the author has carefully collected
all the facts which hear upon a tradition that there once
existed in the Atlantic ocean, opposite the mouth of the
Mediterranean Sea, a large island, which was the remnant
of an Atlantic continent, and known to the ancients as
Atlantis; that this was the region where man first rose
from a state of barbarism to civilization, and that it was de-
stroyed in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which the
whole island sunk into the ocean, with nearly all its inhabit-
ants. A few, however, escaped in ships or on rafts, and
carried to the nations east and west the tidings of the ap-
palling catastrophe, which has survived to our time in the
flood and deluge legends of the different nations of the old
and new worlds.
The legend of Atlantis was preserved by the Egyptians,
and the author quotes the narrative of Plato describing it.
This narrative, according to Plato, was told to Solon, a rela-
tive of his, by an Egyptian priest, it constituting a part of
their religious records. Various other nations have also pre-
served a remembrance of a similar disaster. Among these
we find the Hebrews, tJhaldeans, Hindoos, Phcenicians, Ame-
ricans, etc. These, the author relates, show that they are
similar, and in all probability are recollections of the same
catastrophe. That so many widely separated races should
concur in these legends is certainly strong ground for be-
lieving that they all have some basis in an occurrence which
actually took place. Even the absurdest reports may in
nearly every instance be traced to an actual occurrence;
and had there been no such actual occurrence, this prepos-
terous misrepresentation of it would never have existed.
Though the distorted or magnified image tra.nsmitted to us
through the refractory medium of rumor, is utterly unlike
the reality; yet, in the absence of the reality, there would
have been no distorted or magnified image. And thus it is
with human beliefs in general. Entirely wrong as they may
appear, the implication is that they germinated out of actual
experiences, and originally contained, and perhaps still con-
tain, some small amount of verity. More especially may we
safely assume this in the case of beliefs that have long ex-
isted and are widely diffused; and most of all so in the case
of beliefs that are perennial and nearly or quite universal.
The presumption that any current belief is not wholly false,
gains in strength according to the number of its adherents.
The author of the present work attempts to prove, and
we think in a most satisfactory manner, that these legends
are the remembrances of a long-lost country known to the
ancients as Atlantis. He then proceeds to show that deep-
sea soundings that have been made of the bed of the Atlan-
tic ocean by the United States ship Dolphin, the German
frigate Gazelle, and the British ships Hydra, Porcu-
pine and Challen~er, map out on the ocean bottom an
immense elevation, which corresponds in position with that
of the lost Atlantis as described by Plato. This elevation,
from its mountainous character, must have been produced
by agencies acting above the water level, and afterwards
subsided beneath the waters of the Atlantic, its tallest peaks
still remaining as the Azore Islands. Our author then points
out the striking similarities between the characters of the
civilization on the two sides of the Atlantic, and endeavors
to prove that Atlantis was the original seat of these civiliza-
tions, and that they were derived from it by colonization,
the Atlanteans forming colonies in central America., Mexico,
Peru, valleys of the Amazon and Mississippi, Egypt, etc.
These theories he endeavors to support from studies drawn
from the architecture, language, customs, legends, etc., of
these different nations.
On the whole, the book is a very interesting one, and al-
though on some points the author is perhaps a little enthu-
siastic, still it is a work that should be read by every one
who is interested in one of the most obscure problems of the
present daythe origin of civilization. A. j. r ...................................................................................................................................................................A>
The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals
The Lost Continent-Atlantis. [Manufacturer and builder / Volume 12, Issue 10, October 1880]
View bibliographic information
View page 231 ....................................................................................................................................................................A > ...... .The Lost Continent Atlantis.
From & ience for All we glean tire fohlowinig interest-
ing article: Accordinig to tire ancienits, threne once ex-
isted inn tire Atianitic Ocean, opposite Mount Atlas, a
great island adonned ~vithr every beamity and possessinrg
a nimimnerous population. Its princes were power-furl, so
thrat threy invaded Eunope and Africa, buitby ani over--
~virelminrg catastrophic tire island was swallowed up inn
a nay amid a nigirt. Tins legenrd is said to have beeni
rel~uted to Solon by tire E0yptian priests, anrd is given
by Plato inn tile Tim~us. It probably hradi its origini
in tire existenrce of tire Azores or tire Canrary Islands,
wilichr may irave been visited by tire Phmrricians. Ounr
puirpose is to prove thrat this fable has been far exceededl
by tire realitytinat there once existed mr tile area now
coveledl by tire North Atlantic, air Atilinltis of contimrental
size, and of an anrtiquity compared within which Platos
island is hint of yesterday. Sonre geologists are of
opinion tilat North Arlier-ica was connected by hand
withi Enrurpe iii uriddle tertiary (Miocene) times. Tile
evideilce mipon which this threory is based is tire resemn-
blanice of thle existing plant life of Nor-tin Amurer-ica to
thrat ~virichr flourisired inn Wester-ni Eurrope in tire Mio-
acne epocir. rue plants are supposed to have migrated
from east to west by way of tins imagined Atlantic
lanld. It seems extremely unlikely, irowever, tirat so
gicat cinaruges in tire pirysical geognapiny of tire globe
shrould irave takeni 1)111CC witirini tiinnnes comparatively so
recent Tire deeper parts of tire Atlantic are from
12,000 to 16,000 feet, aird we reqmnire very strong cvi-
denice to convinic~ us tirat suncir eniornIrous depressions
inave occuirred since a comparatively recent geological
period. Tire migration of tire Miocenre flora niray be
more easily explained. Tile lanidi Coninrectiorr between
Eurrope amid Nor-tin America by way of Asia is brokeim
onIly by Beirnings Stnnrits, wiricir an-c very shraliow
anrd a slight cievIrtiorn ~vomnld make it complete. Tirat
tire migration iras beeni fr-our west to cast, across Eutope
and Asia, receives confirmation from tire fact tinat a
flora sinnihar to tire Nortir American iras been discov-
er-ed mi JInpan It is, therefore, unraccessary to create
ann Atlamntic continent to account for tire migration of
tire Miocenre flora Tire conrtinnenrt of wiricir we speak
is of incomparably greater antiquity. No traces of it
urow remain, nunriess tire submIrrinne ridge, wiricir ruins
down tire Atlantic valley inn abomut 50 degrees west
longitude, be its denuded foumrdatiomns. Thus ridge
r-epnesents a great mountain ranrge, rising 4,000 feet
above the valley to tire west, and 8,000 feet above tire
valley to tire cast; arldl reachrinrg to ~vitirinr about 4,000
feet of tire smxrface of tire oceani. Tire Atlantic islands
are irot mr anry way conrnrected witir tins ancient hand.
Thicy are of volcanic origin, rising steeply out of a
deep ocean, and are of connrparatively modern date, thre
oldest stnatnn contaimned in tirema being of middle tertiary
age. Tire destimiction of tine old Atlantis strildingly
illustrates tue instability of tine hanidi. At an epoch in-
conceivably remote tine Atlantic rolled as it is rolhinug
mow. Tinen a huge island raised its back above tire
waters, arid, despite tire irammering and grinlding ac-
tion of tire waves, grew up into a conrtinrent, witir niver
systems and great mountain chrairns. Rain, fnost, ice
and carborric acid, were all tine time at work upon its
surface, eroding, filing, sawing, dissolvinrg, softemning,
and wasining down, till, after it hinrul braved tire ele-
ments for marry successive epocirs, it gradually wirsted
away, broke up into islands, and finaihy disappeared.
Tire ocean reclaimed its ancient sovereigmrty, amid its
sirores gradufally assumed threir present outline
1~8Oj....................................................................................................................................................................B> ....... 1872.] TAMMUZ AND THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 99
carefully guarded in the temple of Saturn
at Carthage, and their fleet had orders to
sink all strange vessels found outside the
Pillars of Hercules.
In addition to this they spread the most
frightful stories of the terrors of the great
sea of Atl, the sea of darkness, and of all
countries with which they alone traded, in
order to prevent other nations from at-
tempting to visit them. Beyond the
Pillars of Hercules, says a Carthaginian
authority, is an island in the midst of
the ocean, rich in vegetation and conse-
crated to Saturn (the Baal Hamon of
Carthage). Nature there shows herself
under a formidable aspect, for when a
vessel approaches the island the waves of
the sea surrounding it rise with fury, and,
shaking the island itself, make it tremble
with terror, while the ocean remains calm
as a lake.
Thus to the ancient world inside of the
Pillars of Hercules, everything outside was
a subject of the wildest and most fantastic
imagination and terrorcoasts inhabited
by goblins, islands shaken by earthquakes,
and the sea filled with monsters and swept
by tempests, or shrouded by an impene-
trable fog, and thick with weeds through
which no ship could pass.
Under these auspicious circumstances
it is perhaps not surprisin~ that we have
not inherited through the classics an ab-
solutely clear account of the discovery and
settlement of America by the Phoenician
navigators. The only scrap which has
come down to us is from the writings of
Plato, and we will give it entire. Said
the Egyptian priest (to Solon)
There was an island situated in front of the
straits which you call the Pillars of Hercules.
The island was larger than Libya and Asia put
together, and was the way to other islands, and
from the islands you might pass to the whole of
the opposite coatinen~ which surrounded the
true ocean; for this sea which is within the
straits of Hercules is only a harbor having a
narrow entrance, but the other is the real sea,
and the surrounding land may be most truly
called a continent.
Plato goes on to relate in another place,
that this island was discovered by Nep-
tune, (Poseidon) and was divided between
the twin brothers Atlas and Gadirus or
Gades, or, being interpreted, between Atlas
or Libyan colonies and Gades or Tyrian colo-
nies, while the other sons of Neptune,
brothers of Atlas and Gades, ~overned the
other islands and territory beyond. The
colonies outside of the Pillars of hercules
are further represented as being in alliance
with the Phoenicians in their attempt to
repel the Greeks from the western Medi-
terranean; which attempt proving a
failure, the island disappeared in true
Phoenician style, sinking in the midst of
the sea of Atl, and leaving as its only
traces a vast continent of weeds and shal-
lows.
There is an intimation in this story
that the Phoenician navigators supposed
the great expanse of weeds and shallows
now called the Sargasso Sea to indi-
cate a sunken island or continent, and
that upon this they based their myth of
the lost Atlantis, originally told hy them
to the Greek marines, and so handed
down to us.
in the mean time, while the Phoenician
navigators were getting off their yarns to
the marines of the Mediterranean, at the
very time when Plato was penning his
account of the explorations of the unknown
sea of Atl by the Phoenicians of the pre-
ceding two or three centuries, the discov-
eries of which he has left us so really ac-
curate a picture had resulted in the peo-
pling of that continent surrounding the
true sea, on its coasts, and by means of its
great river arteries opening up from the
ocean, from the headwaters and affluents
of the Amazon and Orinoco, on the -line
of a curve sweeping through Central
America, Mexico, and the valley of the
Rio Grande, following up the Mi sissippi
and its afiluents, embracing the whole
Atlantic coast region from the Gulf of Mex-
ico to the headwaters of the Chesapeake
and the great lakes of the north accord-
ing to the generalizations by Humboldt
of the ancient civilizations of America.
From Platos account we may derive
some idea of the period of the coming of
the first Phoenician colonies to this conti-
nent. Solon is generally accredited to
the year 600 B. C., a hundred years after
the flight of Eluli from Tyre. The first
explorations and colonies of the Phoeni-
cians outside the Pillars of Hercules were
during the Tyrian period, and Gades was
the Atlantic port from which the fleets of
King Hiram swept the western ocean,
while the combined navies of Hiram and
Solomon were gathering the treasures of
the Indian seas at the East.
The mound-building civilization of this
country has been estimated by Sir John
Lubbock, in his American Archoe-
ology, to be included within a pe
View page 100
100 TEMPUS EDAX. [JULY.
nod of three thousand years, as the
utmost limit of its antiquity. It was
probably well established about 500 or
600 B. C., or about the time Rome be-
gan to rise into notice on the Mediter-
ranean. . ....................................................................................................................................................................... C > . ................................................................................................................................................................... 356 CHRISTOPHER 001 LIMB US.
stagger and bewilder the most expert such as
the perfect ease of navigating the sunset seas
the exploration of the Indian shores by the
ancient Seleucians, who inherited in Syria the
power and glory of Alexander; the expeditions
which, setting out from Baetica afterward sailed
in the waters of Mauritania and others even
further south; the remains of Spanish ships seen
by Prince Caius in the Arabian Gulf in the time
of Augustus; the world-girdling voyage of the
Carthaginian Hanno, abundant in prophetic
statements; the arrival of one Eudoxus at Cadiz
by unknown and mysterious courses, fleeing
from Ptolemy, and a hundred tokens more,
each fitting better than the other the project
then under consideration, with various em-
hellishments that served with some show of
consistency to give it weight and authority.
Again, Macrobius, in the second book of his
commentaries on Scipios Dream, afforded
weapons to the friends of Columbus; for, in the
midst of many errors, he vaguely maintained
the rotundity of the earth and the existence of
the antipodes. This opinion seems to have
been shared by Polybius, Mela, and Solinus,
who are cited by Las Casas in his great His-
tory of the West Indies, a work very favorable
to the memory of Columbus. To the vexed
problem of the antipodes there was joined an-
other, concerning the habitability of the torrid
and frozen zones, which was generally denied,
notwithstanding the testimony of Columbus
that he had sojourned in Iceland and in Guinea.
Paying no heed to the practical proofs of ex-
perience, the contestants resorted to ancient
authors for evidence, and recited how Aristotle,
in his book Of the XVorld, strewed the west-
ern seas with numerous islands and even con-
tinents greater than our known world, all of
them perfectly inhabitable; how Lucan in his
poems alluded to a mysterious tribe of Arabs,
scattered through unknown deserts; how Mar-
cianus taught Pliny the existence about the
north pole of the Hyperboreans, fortunate in
heing born and reared under the frondage of
el~~sian groves, and so long-lived that family
succession could only be effected by suicide in
leaping from the crags of the highest moun-
tainsan expedient often resorted to, it seems
in the torrid zone also, where the life-giving
ocean winds prevail; how two such diverse au-
thors as Avicenna and Anselmo told of groups
of islands,lost and forgotten,like gigantic pearls,
in the wastes of the Shadowy Sea; how Plato,
in his divine dialogues of the Timaeus and the
Critias, commemorated a land called Atlantis
which stretched with reefs of coral and groves
of palms, and opaline seas and mountains of
gems, between the Pillars of Hercules and
Africas western shores even to farthest Asia,
swallowed up in the abysses, but still showing its
traces in the sunken forests of rare and unknown
leafage that stayed the keel of the passing bark,
and held it in their vast embrace; how the Pla-
tonists had inherited their traditions of the mys-
terious Atlantis from the wise lawgiver Solon,
who in turn derived it from the mystic Nile;
how the principal classical geographers con-
nected with the disappearance of Atlantis the
submersion of Acarnania in the Ambracian
GuW of Achaia in the Corinthian Sea, of a part
of the Asian and European continents in the
Propontis and the Euxine Sea, the cleavage of
the two splendid shores of the Bosphorus,
and the comparatively recent formation of
Lesbos; how Seneca in the sixth book of his
Morals attrihuted to Thucydides the attempt
to assign a definite date to the submersion of
the Atlantean continent; how certain legends
told of the former union of Africa and Europe
by an isthmus between the two shores of the
straits, recorded the disappearance of an arm
of Guadalquivir, and told of strange plants and
seawrack seen filling the ocean to the westward
of the Canaries; how St. Ambrose, in his dis-
course upon the Vocations of Men, declared
a perfect and assured hope of bringing to day
far-off regions where new races should receive
the light and revelation of the Gospelcon-
fused and contradictory legends, all of them,
well calculated to lead astray an unfixed and
irresolute mind, but not the mind of Colum-
bus, that prophet absolutely confident in his
own predictions, who, in the midst of such a
sea of confusion, begotten of innumerable re-
ports, some known to him and others unknown,
listened only to the sure voice of his heaven-
decreed mission, and pressed on, with firm and
invincible will, toward the realization of his di-
vine ideal.
A practical result followed all this upstirring
of diverse opinions, in that the pilot reached
a better understanding with the sovereigns and
gained a more effective patronage for the plans
which the Cordovanj unta had condemned. But
although aid was frequently, and even abun-
dantly, given, despite the interminable straits
of the court, a decisive decree ordering the voy-
age itself could not be obtained while the para-
mount efforts for the reconquest blocked the
way. After the sojourn in Salamanca, the royal
pair undertook the conquest of Malaga, and
during its progress Columbus shifted about,
now at the siege of the city, now at the court
in Cordova, and at one time even in Lisbon.
Many deny this last journey of his, but we
need not be surprised at their denial, seeing
that such uncertainty and perplexity reigns
among the historians of that age that some
among them are ignorant of and deny the con-
ferences of Salamanca, locating in Cordova and
Granada the two commissions convoked to
..................................................................................................................................................................... D > Q. 3254. THE ATLANTIS MyTHI enclose with this a scrap
from a newspaper, referring, as you see, to a great and
populous continent that once existed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Is this merely fable? or are there any substantial historical
or other grounds to support the statement? Your reply will
be appreciated by a constant reader.L. S. W., Atlantic
City, N. J.
Answer. The story of the lost continent of Atlantis has
been one of the unsolved riddles that have been handed
down to modern times from remote antiquity. In the con-
crete form from which all the allusions to it in magaEine
and newspaper articles may be referred, it may be traced
back to Plato, the Greek philosopher, who has recorded in
his writings the marvelous story of a great island called
Atlantis, the knowledge of which had been brought to
Athens by his ancestor, the great law-giver Solon, who
learned of it from the lips of the Egyptian priests, in whose
country,
On the Canopian shore, by Niles deep mouth,
he dwelt for ten years. Solon himself attempted to record
the marvelous story in verse, but by reason of age did not
complete it2Plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn so ro-
mantic a theme, took up the story, and he also, unfortu-
nately, did not complete it. What he records is substan-
tially this: That there once existed in the Atlantic ocean,
opposite the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, a large island,
which was the remnant of a great Atlantic continent, and
was known to the ancient world as Atlantis; that this island
was rich and fruitful, and was occupied by a highly culti-
vated and numerous people; and that it was suddenly de-
stroyed in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which the
whole island sunk into the ocean, with nearly all its inhabi-
tants. There is nothing inherently impossible or absurd in
the assertion that a great continent once existed where the
Atlantic now rolls; indeed, there are some facts recently
observed that confirm the plausibility of the theoryin the
most singular manner. These have been brought to light
by recent accurate measurements of the depths of the At-
lantic between Europe and the American coast. These ex-
plorations have demonstrated the existence of a great ridge,
or series of ridges, in the mid-Atlantic, which rises above
the surface at the AEore Islands, and which is sharply
divided by precipitous sides from the great depths of
the ocean about its borders. As the Azores are known
to have once been the seat of active volcanic disturb-
ances, the plausibility of the story of a sunken continent,
of which these islands are but the remnant of its once
lofty mountain peaks, is aided. The historic accuracy of
Platos account of Atlantis has been the subject of innu-
merable discussions. The weight of opinion, however, has
always been in favor of the view that it is fabulous. It is
possiblenay, even probable, that one or a number of is-
lands of considerable size may have existed in the mid-At-
lantic; that they may have been populated; and that they
may have perished, either suddenly by some volcanic or
other terrestrial disturbance (as several islands in the Medi-
terranean are known to have disappeared within compara-
tively recent times), or by gradual subsidence. But while
there may be some underlying substratum of truth in the
story of the island, it is to be feared that in his glowing de-
scription of it.s wonderful richness and fertility, the wealth,
culture and power of its people, the vastness of their com-
merce, the splendor of their cities and temples, their laws
and customs, Plato has drawn heavily on his imagination.
A remarkable book on this subject, in which the substantial
truth of Platos account of Atlantis is stoutly advocated and
supported with much ingenuity, by arguments drawn from
historical, archHological, geological and other sources, most
skillfully interwoven, has lately been written by Mr. Igna-
tins Donnelly, and published by the Harpers. A review of
this work was published in our pages about a year ago.
The book in question displays much research, and is written
in the most attractive and interesting style. It will well re-
pay reading by any one who wishes to inquire into the sub-ject. .................................................................................................................................................................... E > ...................................................... Q. 4052. SUBMARINE Rsnezs saw THE ATLANTIC OcEAN. Is Answer. It is only lately that the figures of British steel
there any evidence in the topography of the bed of the At- production in 1887 have been pubhisised, and we cheerfully
lantic Ocean between Eus-ope and America to support the make use of the figssres ~iven by I. S. Jeans, secretary of
belief in the existence at one tune of a continent now ccv- the British Is-on and Steel Trade Association, and compase
es-ed by the ocean? I listened to a lecture recently in them with those of Mr. Swank, reps-esenting the statistical
which tisat view was presented as highly probable, but no position of steel making in the United States dus-ing the
facts were given to prove its plausibilityA. C., Media, Pa. same period:
Answer. There Is abundant evidessce, from deep-sea ProducdooGross Tons. Gt. Britein. United Stete.
soundings by various scientific expeditions, to demonstrate Bessemer steel 2,004,403 2,986,033
the existence of an extensive submarine ridge or plateau Open-heartis steel 981,104 822,069
on the bed of the Atlantic ocean in the situation named by Crucible steel (about)..... . 100,000 75376
this correspondent. Whether this ridge was ever at one Other steel . (nominal, if any). 5.593
time dry land is, however, purely conjectural. It has been Total 3,145.507 3,839,tfi1
a favorite theme of imaginative wsiters to discuss the Mr. Swank remarks that in 1886, the United States sur-
whereabouts of the lost continent Atlantis, spoken of by
Plato, and by him alleged to have been located in the At-
lantic ocean opposite the gates of Hercules (the Sts-ait of
Gibralter), and which, according to the story which he al-
leges to have received indirectly from thse Egyptian priests,
was swallowed up suddenly by the ocean, in consequence
of the visitation of frightful earthquakes. This traditioss
may hav~ souse foundation for its origin, but it is too mythi-
cal to be received as fact, although its truth has been vig-
orously maintained by numea-ous writers. The most inge-
nious of these advocates of the reality of the Atlantis
myth is Ignatius Donnelly, who has written an extremely
issteresting work on the subject called Atlantis: the Anti-
diluvian World, which was published several years ago.
In this work the author has collected a vast amount of in-
formation bearing on this subject, which he has ingeniously
presented so as to make out a very plausible argument in
favor of the one-time existence of a gseat Atlantean island
or continent. One of the most reasonable parts of his ar-
gument is based on the testimony of the sea, which dis-
closes the presence of an extensive ridge, one thousand
miles wide and several thousand miles long, in mid-Atlan-
tic. He speaks of this evidence as follows: Deep-sea
soundings have been made by ships of different nations;
the United States ship Dolphin, the German frigate Gazelle,
and the Britisis ships Hydra, Porcupine and Challenges- have
mapped out the bottom of the Atlantic, and the result is
the revelation of a gs-eat elevation reaching from a point
on the coast of the British Islands southwas-dly to the coast
of South America at Cape Os-ange, thence southwas-dly to
tise coast of Africa, and thence soutbwardly to Tristan
dAcunha. ... The submerged land ... rises about 9,000
feet above the great Atlantic depths aa-ound it, and in the
Azores, St. Pauls Rocks, Ascension, and Tristan dAcunha
it reaches the surface of the ocean. Evidence that this dc-
vation was once ds-y land is found in the fact that the in-
qualities, the mountains and valleys of its surface, could
never have been psoduced in accos-dance withs any laws fos-
thse deposition of sedimesit, nor by submas-ine elevation;
but, on tise contrary, must have been caused by agencies
acting above the wates- level. He quotes, furthes-, the
statements of the English geologist 3. Stas-ke Gardner, who
is of the opinion that in the Eocene period a great exten-
sion of land existed to the west of Corsswall, and who as-
serts, in refesence to the aidges of the Dolphin, Challenger,
and others, that they prove the existence at one time of a
great tract of land where the sea now is, and that Cornwall,
the Scilly and Channel Islands, Ireland assd Bs-ittany, are
the remains of its highest summits. Here, then, he con-
tinues, we have the backbone of the ancient continent
which once occupied the whole of the Atlantic ocean, assd
from whose washings Europe and America were construct-
ed. Respecting these theorizings, it may be said that Mr.
Gardners geological evidence and conclusions may be, and
psobably are, quite correct, and that the disappeas-ance of
the land to which he refers may have taken place by grad-
ual subsidence since the Eocene pes-lod, and may have been
accomplished at an indefinitely long time prior to the his-
tos-ic period, or even long anterior to the appearance of
man upon the easth. Whether regarded as a work of fic-
tion or of sober science, Mr. Donnellys book possesses a
fascinating interest, and if our correspondent wishes to
follow up the subject of his inquiry, we commend Atlan-
tisto his notice as well wos-th seading.
....................................................................................................................................................................F > ..................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................... Atlantis, the Antediluvian TIhrlcl. By Ignatius Donnelly.New York: Harper & Brothers. 1882.
In this interesting book the author has carefully collected
all the facts which hear upon a tradition that there once
existed in the Atlantic ocean, opposite the mouth of the
Mediterranean Sea, a large island, which was the remnant
of an Atlantic continent, and known to the ancients as
Atlantis; that this was the region where man first rose
from a state of barbarism to civilization, and that it was de-
stroyed in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which the
whole island sunk into the ocean, with nearly all its inhabit-
ants. A few, however, escaped in ships or on rafts, and
carried to the nations east and west the tidings of the ap-
palling catastrophe, which has survived to our time in the
flood and deluge legends of the different nations of the old
and new worlds.
The legend of Atlantis was preserved by the Egyptians,
and the author quotes the narrative of Plato describing it.
This narrative, according to Plato, was told to Solon, a rela-
tive of his, by an Egyptian priest, it constituting a part of
their religious records. Various other nations have also pre-
served a remembrance of a similar disaster. Among these
we find the Hebrews, tJhaldeans, Hindoos, Phcenicians, Ame-
ricans, etc. These, the author relates, show that they are
similar, and in all probability are recollections of the same
catastrophe. That so many widely separated races should
concur in these legends is certainly strong ground for be-
lieving that they all have some basis in an occurrence which
actually took place. Even the absurdest reports may in
nearly every instance be traced to an actual occurrence;
and had there been no such actual occurrence, this prepos-
terous misrepresentation of it would never have existed.
Though the distorted or magnified image tra.nsmitted to us
through the refractory medium of rumor, is utterly unlike
the reality; yet, in the absence of the reality, there would
have been no distorted or magnified image. And thus it is
with human beliefs in general. Entirely wrong as they may
appear, the implication is that they germinated out of actual
experiences, and originally contained, and perhaps still con-
tain, some small amount of verity. More especially may we
safely assume this in the case of beliefs that have long ex-
isted and are widely diffused; and most of all so in the case
of beliefs that are perennial and nearly or quite universal.
The presumption that any current belief is not wholly false,
gains in strength according to the number of its adherents.
The author of the present work attempts to prove, and
we think in a most satisfactory manner, that these legends
are the remembrances of a long-lost country known to the
ancients as Atlantis. He then proceeds to show that deep-
sea soundings that have been made of the bed of the Atlan-
tic ocean by the United States ship Dolphin, the German
frigate Gazelle, and the British ships Hydra, Porcu-
pine and Challen~er, map out on the ocean bottom an
immense elevation, which corresponds in position with that
of the lost Atlantis as described by Plato. This elevation,
from its mountainous character, must have been produced
by agencies acting above the water level, and afterwards
subsided beneath the waters of the Atlantic, its tallest peaks
still remaining as the Azore Islands. Our author then points
out the striking similarities between the characters of the
civilization on the two sides of the Atlantic, and endeavors
to prove that Atlantis was the original seat of these civiliza-
tions, and that they were derived from it by colonization,
the Atlanteans forming colonies in central America., Mexico,
Peru, valleys of the Amazon and Mississippi, Egypt, etc.
These theories he endeavors to support from studies drawn
from the architecture, language, customs, legends, etc., of
these different nations.
On the whole, the book is a very interesting one, and al-
though on some points the author is perhaps a little enthu-
siastic, still it is a work that should be read by every one
who is interested in one of the most obscure problems of the
present daythe origin of civilization. A. j. r ...................................................................................................................................................................A>
 | PREVIOUS | NEXT | NEW SEARCH |
The Lost Continent-Atlantis. [Manufacturer and builder / Volume 12, Issue 10, October 1880]
View bibliographic information
| Notes: | The text viewable for this collection was generated from the page images by optical character recognition (OCR). No corrections have been applied. [More about text] Page images for periodicals other than Garden and Forest are mounted at Cornell University Library. |
View page 231 ....................................................................................................................................................................A > ...... .The Lost Continent Atlantis.
From & ience for All we glean tire fohlowinig interest-
ing article: Accordinig to tire ancienits, threne once ex-
isted inn tire Atianitic Ocean, opposite Mount Atlas, a
great island adonned ~vithr every beamity and possessinrg
a nimimnerous population. Its princes were power-furl, so
thrat threy invaded Eunope and Africa, buitby ani over--
~virelminrg catastrophic tire island was swallowed up inn
a nay amid a nigirt. Tins legenrd is said to have beeni
rel~uted to Solon by tire E0yptian priests, anrd is given
by Plato inn tile Tim~us. It probably hradi its origini
in tire existenrce of tire Azores or tire Canrary Islands,
wilichr may irave been visited by tire Phmrricians. Ounr
puirpose is to prove thrat this fable has been far exceededl
by tire realitytinat there once existed mr tile area now
coveledl by tire North Atlantic, air Atilinltis of contimrental
size, and of an anrtiquity compared within which Platos
island is hint of yesterday. Sonre geologists are of
opinion tilat North Arlier-ica was connected by hand
withi Enrurpe iii uriddle tertiary (Miocene) times. Tile
evideilce mipon which this threory is based is tire resemn-
blanice of thle existing plant life of Nor-tin Amurer-ica to
thrat ~virichr flourisired inn Wester-ni Eurrope in tire Mio-
acne epocir. rue plants are supposed to have migrated
from east to west by way of tins imagined Atlantic
lanld. It seems extremely unlikely, irowever, tirat so
gicat cinaruges in tire pirysical geognapiny of tire globe
shrould irave takeni 1)111CC witirini tiinnnes comparatively so
recent Tire deeper parts of tire Atlantic are from
12,000 to 16,000 feet, aird we reqmnire very strong cvi-
denice to convinic~ us tirat suncir eniornIrous depressions
inave occuirred since a comparatively recent geological
period. Tire migration of tire Miocenre flora niray be
more easily explained. Tile lanidi Coninrectiorr between
Eurrope amid Nor-tin America by way of Asia is brokeim
onIly by Beirnings Stnnrits, wiricir an-c very shraliow
anrd a slight cievIrtiorn ~vomnld make it complete. Tirat
tire migration iras beeni fr-our west to cast, across Eutope
and Asia, receives confirmation from tire fact tinat a
flora sinnihar to tire Nortir American iras been discov-
er-ed mi JInpan It is, therefore, unraccessary to create
ann Atlamntic continent to account for tire migration of
tire Miocenre flora Tire conrtinnenrt of wiricir we speak
is of incomparably greater antiquity. No traces of it
urow remain, nunriess tire submIrrinne ridge, wiricir ruins
down tire Atlantic valley inn abomut 50 degrees west
longitude, be its denuded foumrdatiomns. Thus ridge
r-epnesents a great mountain ranrge, rising 4,000 feet
above the valley to tire west, and 8,000 feet above tire
valley to tire cast; arldl reachrinrg to ~vitirinr about 4,000
feet of tire smxrface of tire oceani. Tire Atlantic islands
are irot mr anry way conrnrected witir tins ancient hand.
Thicy are of volcanic origin, rising steeply out of a
deep ocean, and are of connrparatively modern date, thre
oldest stnatnn contaimned in tirema being of middle tertiary
age. Tire destimiction of tine old Atlantis strildingly
illustrates tue instability of tine hanidi. At an epoch in-
conceivably remote tine Atlantic rolled as it is rolhinug
mow. Tinen a huge island raised its back above tire
waters, arid, despite tire irammering and grinlding ac-
tion of tire waves, grew up into a conrtinrent, witir niver
systems and great mountain chrairns. Rain, fnost, ice
and carborric acid, were all tine time at work upon its
surface, eroding, filing, sawing, dissolvinrg, softemning,
and wasining down, till, after it hinrul braved tire ele-
ments for marry successive epocirs, it gradually wirsted
away, broke up into islands, and finaihy disappeared.
Tire ocean reclaimed its ancient sovereigmrty, amid its
sirores gradufally assumed threir present outline
1~8Oj....................................................................................................................................................................B> ....... 1872.] TAMMUZ AND THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 99
carefully guarded in the temple of Saturn
at Carthage, and their fleet had orders to
sink all strange vessels found outside the
Pillars of Hercules.
In addition to this they spread the most
frightful stories of the terrors of the great
sea of Atl, the sea of darkness, and of all
countries with which they alone traded, in
order to prevent other nations from at-
tempting to visit them. Beyond the
Pillars of Hercules, says a Carthaginian
authority, is an island in the midst of
the ocean, rich in vegetation and conse-
crated to Saturn (the Baal Hamon of
Carthage). Nature there shows herself
under a formidable aspect, for when a
vessel approaches the island the waves of
the sea surrounding it rise with fury, and,
shaking the island itself, make it tremble
with terror, while the ocean remains calm
as a lake.
Thus to the ancient world inside of the
Pillars of Hercules, everything outside was
a subject of the wildest and most fantastic
imagination and terrorcoasts inhabited
by goblins, islands shaken by earthquakes,
and the sea filled with monsters and swept
by tempests, or shrouded by an impene-
trable fog, and thick with weeds through
which no ship could pass.
Under these auspicious circumstances
it is perhaps not surprisin~ that we have
not inherited through the classics an ab-
solutely clear account of the discovery and
settlement of America by the Phoenician
navigators. The only scrap which has
come down to us is from the writings of
Plato, and we will give it entire. Said
the Egyptian priest (to Solon)
There was an island situated in front of the
straits which you call the Pillars of Hercules.
The island was larger than Libya and Asia put
together, and was the way to other islands, and
from the islands you might pass to the whole of
the opposite coatinen~ which surrounded the
true ocean; for this sea which is within the
straits of Hercules is only a harbor having a
narrow entrance, but the other is the real sea,
and the surrounding land may be most truly
called a continent.
Plato goes on to relate in another place,
that this island was discovered by Nep-
tune, (Poseidon) and was divided between
the twin brothers Atlas and Gadirus or
Gades, or, being interpreted, between Atlas
or Libyan colonies and Gades or Tyrian colo-
nies, while the other sons of Neptune,
brothers of Atlas and Gades, ~overned the
other islands and territory beyond. The
colonies outside of the Pillars of hercules
are further represented as being in alliance
with the Phoenicians in their attempt to
repel the Greeks from the western Medi-
terranean; which attempt proving a
failure, the island disappeared in true
Phoenician style, sinking in the midst of
the sea of Atl, and leaving as its only
traces a vast continent of weeds and shal-
lows.
There is an intimation in this story
that the Phoenician navigators supposed
the great expanse of weeds and shallows
now called the Sargasso Sea to indi-
cate a sunken island or continent, and
that upon this they based their myth of
the lost Atlantis, originally told hy them
to the Greek marines, and so handed
down to us.
in the mean time, while the Phoenician
navigators were getting off their yarns to
the marines of the Mediterranean, at the
very time when Plato was penning his
account of the explorations of the unknown
sea of Atl by the Phoenicians of the pre-
ceding two or three centuries, the discov-
eries of which he has left us so really ac-
curate a picture had resulted in the peo-
pling of that continent surrounding the
true sea, on its coasts, and by means of its
great river arteries opening up from the
ocean, from the headwaters and affluents
of the Amazon and Orinoco, on the -line
of a curve sweeping through Central
America, Mexico, and the valley of the
Rio Grande, following up the Mi sissippi
and its afiluents, embracing the whole
Atlantic coast region from the Gulf of Mex-
ico to the headwaters of the Chesapeake
and the great lakes of the north accord-
ing to the generalizations by Humboldt
of the ancient civilizations of America.
From Platos account we may derive
some idea of the period of the coming of
the first Phoenician colonies to this conti-
nent. Solon is generally accredited to
the year 600 B. C., a hundred years after
the flight of Eluli from Tyre. The first
explorations and colonies of the Phoeni-
cians outside the Pillars of Hercules were
during the Tyrian period, and Gades was
the Atlantic port from which the fleets of
King Hiram swept the western ocean,
while the combined navies of Hiram and
Solomon were gathering the treasures of
the Indian seas at the East.
The mound-building civilization of this
country has been estimated by Sir John
Lubbock, in his American Archoe-
ology, to be included within a pe
View page 100
100 TEMPUS EDAX. [JULY.
nod of three thousand years, as the
utmost limit of its antiquity. It was
probably well established about 500 or
600 B. C., or about the time Rome be-
gan to rise into notice on the Mediter-
ranean. . ....................................................................................................................................................................... C > . ................................................................................................................................................................... 356 CHRISTOPHER 001 LIMB US.
stagger and bewilder the most expert such as
the perfect ease of navigating the sunset seas
the exploration of the Indian shores by the
ancient Seleucians, who inherited in Syria the
power and glory of Alexander; the expeditions
which, setting out from Baetica afterward sailed
in the waters of Mauritania and others even
further south; the remains of Spanish ships seen
by Prince Caius in the Arabian Gulf in the time
of Augustus; the world-girdling voyage of the
Carthaginian Hanno, abundant in prophetic
statements; the arrival of one Eudoxus at Cadiz
by unknown and mysterious courses, fleeing
from Ptolemy, and a hundred tokens more,
each fitting better than the other the project
then under consideration, with various em-
hellishments that served with some show of
consistency to give it weight and authority.
Again, Macrobius, in the second book of his
commentaries on Scipios Dream, afforded
weapons to the friends of Columbus; for, in the
midst of many errors, he vaguely maintained
the rotundity of the earth and the existence of
the antipodes. This opinion seems to have
been shared by Polybius, Mela, and Solinus,
who are cited by Las Casas in his great His-
tory of the West Indies, a work very favorable
to the memory of Columbus. To the vexed
problem of the antipodes there was joined an-
other, concerning the habitability of the torrid
and frozen zones, which was generally denied,
notwithstanding the testimony of Columbus
that he had sojourned in Iceland and in Guinea.
Paying no heed to the practical proofs of ex-
perience, the contestants resorted to ancient
authors for evidence, and recited how Aristotle,
in his book Of the XVorld, strewed the west-
ern seas with numerous islands and even con-
tinents greater than our known world, all of
them perfectly inhabitable; how Lucan in his
poems alluded to a mysterious tribe of Arabs,
scattered through unknown deserts; how Mar-
cianus taught Pliny the existence about the
north pole of the Hyperboreans, fortunate in
heing born and reared under the frondage of
el~~sian groves, and so long-lived that family
succession could only be effected by suicide in
leaping from the crags of the highest moun-
tainsan expedient often resorted to, it seems
in the torrid zone also, where the life-giving
ocean winds prevail; how two such diverse au-
thors as Avicenna and Anselmo told of groups
of islands,lost and forgotten,like gigantic pearls,
in the wastes of the Shadowy Sea; how Plato,
in his divine dialogues of the Timaeus and the
Critias, commemorated a land called Atlantis
which stretched with reefs of coral and groves
of palms, and opaline seas and mountains of
gems, between the Pillars of Hercules and
Africas western shores even to farthest Asia,
swallowed up in the abysses, but still showing its
traces in the sunken forests of rare and unknown
leafage that stayed the keel of the passing bark,
and held it in their vast embrace; how the Pla-
tonists had inherited their traditions of the mys-
terious Atlantis from the wise lawgiver Solon,
who in turn derived it from the mystic Nile;
how the principal classical geographers con-
nected with the disappearance of Atlantis the
submersion of Acarnania in the Ambracian
GuW of Achaia in the Corinthian Sea, of a part
of the Asian and European continents in the
Propontis and the Euxine Sea, the cleavage of
the two splendid shores of the Bosphorus,
and the comparatively recent formation of
Lesbos; how Seneca in the sixth book of his
Morals attrihuted to Thucydides the attempt
to assign a definite date to the submersion of
the Atlantean continent; how certain legends
told of the former union of Africa and Europe
by an isthmus between the two shores of the
straits, recorded the disappearance of an arm
of Guadalquivir, and told of strange plants and
seawrack seen filling the ocean to the westward
of the Canaries; how St. Ambrose, in his dis-
course upon the Vocations of Men, declared
a perfect and assured hope of bringing to day
far-off regions where new races should receive
the light and revelation of the Gospelcon-
fused and contradictory legends, all of them,
well calculated to lead astray an unfixed and
irresolute mind, but not the mind of Colum-
bus, that prophet absolutely confident in his
own predictions, who, in the midst of such a
sea of confusion, begotten of innumerable re-
ports, some known to him and others unknown,
listened only to the sure voice of his heaven-
decreed mission, and pressed on, with firm and
invincible will, toward the realization of his di-
vine ideal.
A practical result followed all this upstirring
of diverse opinions, in that the pilot reached
a better understanding with the sovereigns and
gained a more effective patronage for the plans
which the Cordovanj unta had condemned. But
although aid was frequently, and even abun-
dantly, given, despite the interminable straits
of the court, a decisive decree ordering the voy-
age itself could not be obtained while the para-
mount efforts for the reconquest blocked the
way. After the sojourn in Salamanca, the royal
pair undertook the conquest of Malaga, and
during its progress Columbus shifted about,
now at the siege of the city, now at the court
in Cordova, and at one time even in Lisbon.
Many deny this last journey of his, but we
need not be surprised at their denial, seeing
that such uncertainty and perplexity reigns
among the historians of that age that some
among them are ignorant of and deny the con-
ferences of Salamanca, locating in Cordova and
Granada the two commissions convoked to
..................................................................................................................................................................... D > Q. 3254. THE ATLANTIS MyTHI enclose with this a scrap
from a newspaper, referring, as you see, to a great and
populous continent that once existed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Is this merely fable? or are there any substantial historical
or other grounds to support the statement? Your reply will
be appreciated by a constant reader.L. S. W., Atlantic
City, N. J.
Answer. The story of the lost continent of Atlantis has
been one of the unsolved riddles that have been handed
down to modern times from remote antiquity. In the con-
crete form from which all the allusions to it in magaEine
and newspaper articles may be referred, it may be traced
back to Plato, the Greek philosopher, who has recorded in
his writings the marvelous story of a great island called
Atlantis, the knowledge of which had been brought to
Athens by his ancestor, the great law-giver Solon, who
learned of it from the lips of the Egyptian priests, in whose
country,
On the Canopian shore, by Niles deep mouth,
he dwelt for ten years. Solon himself attempted to record
the marvelous story in verse, but by reason of age did not
complete it2Plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn so ro-
mantic a theme, took up the story, and he also, unfortu-
nately, did not complete it. What he records is substan-
tially this: That there once existed in the Atlantic ocean,
opposite the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, a large island,
which was the remnant of a great Atlantic continent, and
was known to the ancient world as Atlantis; that this island
was rich and fruitful, and was occupied by a highly culti-
vated and numerous people; and that it was suddenly de-
stroyed in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which the
whole island sunk into the ocean, with nearly all its inhabi-
tants. There is nothing inherently impossible or absurd in
the assertion that a great continent once existed where the
Atlantic now rolls; indeed, there are some facts recently
observed that confirm the plausibility of the theoryin the
most singular manner. These have been brought to light
by recent accurate measurements of the depths of the At-
lantic between Europe and the American coast. These ex-
plorations have demonstrated the existence of a great ridge,
or series of ridges, in the mid-Atlantic, which rises above
the surface at the AEore Islands, and which is sharply
divided by precipitous sides from the great depths of
the ocean about its borders. As the Azores are known
to have once been the seat of active volcanic disturb-
ances, the plausibility of the story of a sunken continent,
of which these islands are but the remnant of its once
lofty mountain peaks, is aided. The historic accuracy of
Platos account of Atlantis has been the subject of innu-
merable discussions. The weight of opinion, however, has
always been in favor of the view that it is fabulous. It is
possiblenay, even probable, that one or a number of is-
lands of considerable size may have existed in the mid-At-
lantic; that they may have been populated; and that they
may have perished, either suddenly by some volcanic or
other terrestrial disturbance (as several islands in the Medi-
terranean are known to have disappeared within compara-
tively recent times), or by gradual subsidence. But while
there may be some underlying substratum of truth in the
story of the island, it is to be feared that in his glowing de-
scription of it.s wonderful richness and fertility, the wealth,
culture and power of its people, the vastness of their com-
merce, the splendor of their cities and temples, their laws
and customs, Plato has drawn heavily on his imagination.
A remarkable book on this subject, in which the substantial
truth of Platos account of Atlantis is stoutly advocated and
supported with much ingenuity, by arguments drawn from
historical, archHological, geological and other sources, most
skillfully interwoven, has lately been written by Mr. Igna-
tins Donnelly, and published by the Harpers. A review of
this work was published in our pages about a year ago.
The book in question displays much research, and is written
in the most attractive and interesting style. It will well re-
pay reading by any one who wishes to inquire into the sub-ject. .................................................................................................................................................................... E > ...................................................... Q. 4052. SUBMARINE Rsnezs saw THE ATLANTIC OcEAN. Is Answer. It is only lately that the figures of British steel
there any evidence in the topography of the bed of the At- production in 1887 have been pubhisised, and we cheerfully
lantic Ocean between Eus-ope and America to support the make use of the figssres ~iven by I. S. Jeans, secretary of
belief in the existence at one tune of a continent now ccv- the British Is-on and Steel Trade Association, and compase
es-ed by the ocean? I listened to a lecture recently in them with those of Mr. Swank, reps-esenting the statistical
which tisat view was presented as highly probable, but no position of steel making in the United States dus-ing the
facts were given to prove its plausibilityA. C., Media, Pa. same period:
Answer. There Is abundant evidessce, from deep-sea ProducdooGross Tons. Gt. Britein. United Stete.
soundings by various scientific expeditions, to demonstrate Bessemer steel 2,004,403 2,986,033
the existence of an extensive submarine ridge or plateau Open-heartis steel 981,104 822,069
on the bed of the Atlantic ocean in the situation named by Crucible steel (about)..... . 100,000 75376
this correspondent. Whether this ridge was ever at one Other steel . (nominal, if any). 5.593
time dry land is, however, purely conjectural. It has been Total 3,145.507 3,839,tfi1
a favorite theme of imaginative wsiters to discuss the Mr. Swank remarks that in 1886, the United States sur-
whereabouts of the lost continent Atlantis, spoken of by
Plato, and by him alleged to have been located in the At-
lantic ocean opposite the gates of Hercules (the Sts-ait of
Gibralter), and which, according to the story which he al-
leges to have received indirectly from thse Egyptian priests,
was swallowed up suddenly by the ocean, in consequence
of the visitation of frightful earthquakes. This traditioss
may hav~ souse foundation for its origin, but it is too mythi-
cal to be received as fact, although its truth has been vig-
orously maintained by numea-ous writers. The most inge-
nious of these advocates of the reality of the Atlantis
myth is Ignatius Donnelly, who has written an extremely
issteresting work on the subject called Atlantis: the Anti-
diluvian World, which was published several years ago.
In this work the author has collected a vast amount of in-
formation bearing on this subject, which he has ingeniously
presented so as to make out a very plausible argument in
favor of the one-time existence of a gseat Atlantean island
or continent. One of the most reasonable parts of his ar-
gument is based on the testimony of the sea, which dis-
closes the presence of an extensive ridge, one thousand
miles wide and several thousand miles long, in mid-Atlan-
tic. He speaks of this evidence as follows: Deep-sea
soundings have been made by ships of different nations;
the United States ship Dolphin, the German frigate Gazelle,
and the Britisis ships Hydra, Porcupine and Challenges- have
mapped out the bottom of the Atlantic, and the result is
the revelation of a gs-eat elevation reaching from a point
on the coast of the British Islands southwas-dly to the coast
of South America at Cape Os-ange, thence southwas-dly to
tise coast of Africa, and thence soutbwardly to Tristan
dAcunha. ... The submerged land ... rises about 9,000
feet above the great Atlantic depths aa-ound it, and in the
Azores, St. Pauls Rocks, Ascension, and Tristan dAcunha
it reaches the surface of the ocean. Evidence that this dc-
vation was once ds-y land is found in the fact that the in-
qualities, the mountains and valleys of its surface, could
never have been psoduced in accos-dance withs any laws fos-
thse deposition of sedimesit, nor by submas-ine elevation;
but, on tise contrary, must have been caused by agencies
acting above the wates- level. He quotes, furthes-, the
statements of the English geologist 3. Stas-ke Gardner, who
is of the opinion that in the Eocene period a great exten-
sion of land existed to the west of Corsswall, and who as-
serts, in refesence to the aidges of the Dolphin, Challenger,
and others, that they prove the existence at one time of a
great tract of land where the sea now is, and that Cornwall,
the Scilly and Channel Islands, Ireland assd Bs-ittany, are
the remains of its highest summits. Here, then, he con-
tinues, we have the backbone of the ancient continent
which once occupied the whole of the Atlantic ocean, assd
from whose washings Europe and America were construct-
ed. Respecting these theorizings, it may be said that Mr.
Gardners geological evidence and conclusions may be, and
psobably are, quite correct, and that the disappeas-ance of
the land to which he refers may have taken place by grad-
ual subsidence since the Eocene pes-lod, and may have been
accomplished at an indefinitely long time prior to the his-
tos-ic period, or even long anterior to the appearance of
man upon the easth. Whether regarded as a work of fic-
tion or of sober science, Mr. Donnellys book possesses a
fascinating interest, and if our correspondent wishes to
follow up the subject of his inquiry, we commend Atlan-
tisto his notice as well wos-th seading.
....................................................................................................................................................................F > ..................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................
No comments:
Post a Comment