CONCLUSION.
“And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked
How first this world and face of things began,
And what before thy memory was done
From the beginning.”
The existence of the Continent of Atlantis is an hypothesis, but so was
the existence of Lemuria, and there are scientists today of
international repute who firmly believe that a continent once existed in
the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and India, and the proof is not
wanting.
On the island of Madagascar are found thirty-three species of monkeys
called Lemurs, which are not found in Africa, nor in any other part of
the globe except Ceylon, India, and the Malay Archipelago. Because these
Lemurs are found only in that region, Sclater, the English Zoologist,
has called the sunken continent “Lemuria.” Between Madagascar and India
are a number of submerged banks of less than a thousand fathoms deep,
which a slight elevation would make comparatively easy stages of
communication between Madagascar and India for all animals. An elevation
of three hundred feet would unite Java, Sumatra and Borneo, into one
great peninsula of the Asiatic continent.
The island of Madagascar is two hundred and fifty miles wide and a
thousand miles long, and is separated from Africa by the Mozambique
channel, only two hundred and fifty miles wide. Africa has monkeys, apes
and baboons; also lions, leopards, hyenas, zebras, rhinoceri, elephants,
buffalo, giraffes, and many species of deer and antelope; but strange to
say, not _one_ of these is found in Madagascar, or anything like unto
them, and yet Madagascar is only two hundred and fifty miles away. There
are in Madagascar, according to Wallace’s “Island Life,” and Dr.
Hartlaub’s “Birds of Madagascar,” one hundred species of land birds, and
only four or five have any kindred in Africa; but in Malaysia and India
we find identical species, and on the islands of Mauritius, Rodriguez,
Bourbon and the Seychelles group, we find so many curious birds without
wings with kindred in Madagascar, we know that the islands at some time
have been connected, else how could birds without wings get from one to
the other? There are five species of lizards which are found in
Mauritius, Bourbon, Rodriguez and Ceylon, and even to the Philipine
Islands.
The Mascarine group contains a thousand and fifty-eight species of
plants, of which sixty-six are found in Africa but not in Asia, and
eighty-six are found in Asia but not in Africa, showing a closer
relationship to Asia than to Africa. Milne-Edwards has even surmised a
Mascarine continent, to include all the outlaying islands around
Madagascar. Beccari, in his work on the distribution of palms, after
noting the difficulty of the dispersion of the fruits, reaches the
conclusion that, when we find two congeneric species of palms on widely
separated lands, it is reasonable to infer that the lands have once been
united. On the Mascarine Islands, in Ceylon, the Nicobars, at Singapore,
on the Malaccas, New Guinea, in Australia and Polynesia, occur various
species of _Phycosperma_, all very difficult of dissemination, and hence
could only have reached their present habitat by being connected by
intervening lands now in the ocean bed.
Winchell in his “Pre-Adamites” states among his principles: 1. The
doctrine of Pre-Adamites is entirely consonant with the fundamental
principles of Biblical christianity; 2. A chain of profound relationship
runs through the constitution of all races, and they may be
genealogically connected; 3. The initial point of the genealogical line
may be located in Lemuria. Peschell in his “Races of Man,” says: “This
continent which would correspond with the Indian Ethiopia of Claudius
Ptolemaus, is required by anthropology, for we can then conceive how the
inferior populations of Australia and India, the Papuans of the East
Indian Islands, and lastly, the Negroes, would thus be enabled to reach
their present abode by dry land. The selection of this spot is far more
orthodox than it might at first glance appear, for we here find
ourselves in the neighborhood of the four enigmatical rivers of the
Scriptural Eden,--in the vicinity of the Nile, Euphrates, Tigris and
Indus. By the gradual submergence of Lemuria, the expulsion from
Paradise would also be inexorably accomplished.” To this he adds the
argument of such ecclesiastical writers as Lactautius, the venerable
Bede, Hrabanus Maurus, Cosmos Indiclopleustes, and the anonymous
geographer of Ravenna.
I go thus into detail to show that men believe in the submerged
continent of Lemuria, though they have never seen it, but cannot explain
the presence of plants and animals on widely separated islands except by
supposing they were once connected. If we could establish a similar
relationship with Atlantis, the matter would explain itself. From the
presence of rock salt, sand and sea-shells on the desert of Sahara, we
know that it was once the bottom of the ocean, and the cause of its
rising might have been the submergence of Lemuria, or vice versa, and
the submergence of Atlantis may have had a counter result elsewhere.
Charles Martins says that: “By the rules of hydrography and botany, the
Azores, the Canaries and Madeira are the remains of a great continent
which formerly united Europe to North America.”[G]
However, Atlantis does not have to stand altogether on theory. The
governments of the world have gone about it in a practical manner, which
is worthy of notice.
In 1873, Her Majesty’s ship _Challenge_ made soundings in the Atlantic
off the north coast of Africa, and in 1874 the German frigate,
_Gazelle_, made further soundings in the same regions, and in 1877
Commodore Gorringe of the U. S. sloop _Gettysburg_, discovered, about a
hundred miles from the Strait of Gibraltar, an immense bed of pink coral
in thirty-two fathoms of water. Corals never work in water deeper than
two hundred feet, so at last here is proof positive that there are
sunken islands there. These various soundings, when located on a map,
indicate the existence of an extended bank of comparatively shallow
water, in the midst of which the Canaries and the Madeiras rise to the
surface.
The location of the newly discovered mountains in the Atlantic, lies
within the fifteen thousand fathom line, and here is probably the stump
of the ancient Atlantis.
FINIS.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Histoire des nations civilises du Mexique et de l’Amerique
centrale, durant les siecles antericurs a Christophe Colomb, ecrite
surs des documents originaux et entierement mediis, purises aux
anciennes archives des indigenes, par M. l’Abbe Brasseuer de Bourbourg.
4 forts. vol. in-3 raisin avec carte et figures.
[B] Aristotle _Consolatio ad Appollonium_ § 27, P. 137.
[C] Catlin P. 145.
[D] Foster, Prehistoric Races of the U. S.
[E] Present State of Ethnology in Relation to the Form of the skull.
Smithsonian Report 1860 P. 264 _et seq._
[F] Vid. Aq. Ried, Smithsonian Annual Report, 1862, pp. 87, 426.
[G] “_Revue des Deux Mondes._” March, 1867.
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
Nuesta Senora=>
Nuestra Señora
{pg 20}
little peubla=>
little puebla
{pg 30}
a los pasajeroes=>
a los pasajeros
{pg 58}
Si Senor=>
Sí Señor
{pg 60}
him a stack or=>
him a stack of
{pg 69}
suffered martydom=>
suffered martyrdom
{pg 76}
narrow-guage road=>
narrow-gauge road
{pg 82}
road to Tlacotalpam=>
road to Tlacotalpan
{pg 99}
altar of the war god=>
altar of the war-god
{pg 100}
dug up the the roots=>
dug up the roots
{pg 105}
El Segario Metripolitano=>
El Sagrario Metropolitano
{pg 110}
Viva Hildalgo!=>
Viva Hidalgo!
{pg 116}
was soon superceded=>
was soon superseded
{pg 126}
Biano P.=>
Bianco P.
{pg 126}
Sacret Heart of San Cosme=>
Sacred Heart of San Cosme
{pg 128}
Gaudalupe Hidalgo is=>
Guadalupe Hidalgo is
{pg 130}
the pedestrains, dressed=>
the pedestrians, dressed
{pg 158}
sport as our base ball=>
sport as our base-ball
{pg 167}
senoritas=>
señoritas{pg 168}
Nous avous change tout=>
Nous avons change tout
{pg 175}
For desert a few banana=>
For dessert a few banana
{pg 177}
old ecclesiastial building=>
old ecclesiastical building
{pg 177}
senoras=>
senoras
{pg 181}
an as they pass=>
and as they pass
{pg 207}
get our quoto of=>
get our quota of
{pg 208}
Viva Idependencia!=>
Viva Independencia!
{pg 212}
gusanas de la maguey=>
gusanos de la maguey
{pg 227}
pulque neuva=>
pulque nueva
{pg 230}
believe that the X ray=>
believe that the X-ray
{pg 234}
northeast of the the plaza=>
northeast of the plaza
{pg 245}
La Cindad de los=>
La Ciudad de los
{pg 261}
appointed a commision=>
appointed a commission
{pg 262}
Bert Harte may come=>
Bret Harte may come
{pg 267}
San Jose de Analco=>
San José de Analco
{pg 277}
road to Tlacotalpam=>
road to Tlacotalpan
{pg 279}
It somewhat resemble a marmoset=>
It somewhat resembles a marmoset
{pg 282}
Flowers grows so luxuriously=>
Flowers grow so luxuriously
{pg 286}
prepartions of salt=>
preparations of salt
{pg 287}
one of the fedual days=>
one of the feudal days
{pg 296}
I have met these priest=>
I have met these priests
{pg 299}
The frijolas are cooked=>
The frijoles are cooked
{pg 301}
ancient philosopers=>
ancient philosopers
{pg 325}
Phillipine Islands=>
Philipine Islands
{pg 349}
Senora=>
Señora
{x4}
Senor=>
Señor
{x9 }
senor=>
señor
{x9 }
senora=>
señora
{x4}
senorita=>
señorita
{x2 }