THE FABLED CONTINENT OF ATLANTIS
Besides the sudden changes of level that frequently occur during
earthquake shocks there are gradual changes of level that take place
very slowly throughout long periods of time.
These are believed to be due to the warpings produced by the cooling
of an originally highly heated globe.
It is not true, therefore, that the earth's surface is fixed, or that
its land and water areas remain always the same. On the contrary, what
is land at one time is water at another time, and so, too, water areas
may become changed into land areas.
For the most part these changes go on so slowly as not to be
noticeable in an ordinary lifetime. Indeed, in some cases, they are so
extremely gradual that Methuselah himself might have gone to his grave
in ignorance of their progress.
Let us briefly note a few well-known gradual changes of level.
One of the most extensive of these is the sinking of an immense area,
over 6,000 miles in diameter, that covers a large part of the bed or
floor of the Pacific Ocean.
It is an easy matter to observe the gradual changes of level on the
coasts, since the old water line can be at once found, but it is very
difficult to detect such changes in the bed of the ocean, hidden as
it is by a covering of water. Yet many things that seem impossible to
the uninitiated are readily solved by those familiar with physical
science. Little signs, meaningless to others, are easily read, and
these prove beyond doubt the gradual sinking of the ocean's bed.
It was once believed that the coral polyps or animalculæ from the
hard, bony skeletons of which coral reefs are formed, could live
at the greatest depths of the ocean. These minute animals were,
therefore, generally credited with filling up the deep ocean,
in certain places, and converting it into dry land, and poetic
philosophers were pleased to point to their indefatigable labors as an
object lesson to the slothful.
But these charming, though fallacious, ideas were rudely overthrown by
the sounding line and the drag-net. It had long been known that pieces
of coral rock were brought up by dredging apparatus from the bottom of
the ocean at all depths, but it was eventually shown that such pieces
of coral rock never contained living animalculæ, when brought from
water at greater depths than from 100 to 120 feet.
It puzzled scientific men no little at first to explain this apparent
inconsistency. If the coral polyp could not live in water at greater
depths than from 100 to 120 feet, how could the presence of coral rock
at a depth of thousands of feet be explained? Happily, however, this
problem was solved by the great naturalist, Charles Darwin, who showed
that coral islands can only be formed in parts of the ocean whose beds
are sinking at the same gradual rate at which the coral rock is being
deposited. The presence, therefore, of coral islands on the bed of the
Pacific, as well as along parts of its coasts, are, to scientific men,
as good indications of its gradual sinking as if such facts had been
written in the clearest language.
But there are other instances of gradual changes of level besides
the bed of the Pacific. About 600 miles along the coast of Greenland,
from Disco Bay, near lat. 69° N., south to the Firth of Igaliko, lat.
60° 43' N., the bed of the ocean has been slowly sinking through 400
years. Old buildings and islands have been covered by the waters, so
that fishermen have been compelled to provide new poles for their
boats. As Sir Charles Lyell remarks:
"In one place the Moravian settlers have been obliged more
than once to move inland the poles upon which their large
boats are set, and the old poles still remain beneath the
water as silent witnesses of the change."
Besides these gradual changes of level there are many others, but
only one more need be cited: the gradual movements of the coasts of
North America between Labrador and New Jersey that are rising in some
places, and sinking in other places.
The evidences of these gradual changes of level are sometimes of
such a character that he who runs may read them. One of the most
interesting is, perhaps, that of the old Roman temple of Jupiter
Serapis, at Pozzuli, on the borders of the Mediterranean. This temple,
when completed, was 124 feet in length and 115 feet in width. Its roof
was supported by forty-six columns, each forty-two feet in height, and
five feet in diameter. Only three of these columns are now standing.
They give, however, unquestionable evidence of having been submerged
for about half their height. Nor, indeed, is the evidence wanting that
this submergence continued a considerable time; for, while the lower
twelve feet of the columns remain smooth and unaffected, yet, for a
distance of nine feet above this portion, they have been perforated
by various stone-boring mollusks of a species still living in the
Mediterranean. This witnesses that the columns, when submerged, were
buried in mud for twelve feet, and surrounded by water nine feet
deep. According to Dana, the pavement of the temple is still under
water. The fact that another pavement exists below it shows that these
changes of level had occurred before the temple was deserted by the
Romans. It appears, that, prior to 1845, a gradual sinking of this
part of the coast had been going on, but that since then there has
ensued a gradual rising.
The evidences of these gradual changes of level in the land and water
surfaces of the earth cannot be doubted by even the most skeptical.
Again and again has the dry land disappeared below the surface of the
waters of the ocean. Again and again, the ocean's bed has been raised
to the surface and been converted into dry land. Suppose we attempt to
follow one of the latter movements.
We will imagine an extensive area to have slowly appeared above the
ocean. In due process of time this land surface, which we will assume
to have continental dimensions, gradually becomes covered with plant
and animal life. If it remains above the water for a sufficient
length of time, its simple plants and animals acquire more and more
complex forms, so as to make it difficult to detect any traces of the
original species from which they have descended, or, more correctly,
ascended. Moreover, where favorable conditions exist, the continent
becomes peopled with men, who gradually advance from barbarism to
semi-barbarism and eventually become a most highly civilized nation,
sending to different parts of the world colonies, who carry with them
the language and religious customs of the land of their birth.
But, a sudden or paroxysmal change of level occurs. The highly
developed and densely populated region is suddenly swept out of
existence and completely covered by the waters of the ocean until, in
a few thousand years, all traces of its existence have so completely
disappeared that but few, if any, can be found willing to acknowledge
it ever had an existence.
Such, it is claimed, was the fate of the fabled Continent of Atlantis.
It will, therefore, be interesting to endeavor briefly to review its
past history and to read some of the things that have been written
about this part of the world, which appears in the opinion of some of
the ancients to have actually existed.
References to Atlantis have been made by various early writers. Solon,
the great Athenian lawgiver, who flourished 600 years B. C.,
began a description of this place in verse. This description was never
completed. At a later date one of Solon's descendants, Plato, who
lived about 400 B. C., prepared a description of Atlantis,
giving in detail its location, the general character of its surface,
a description of its principal city, and the civilization of its
inhabitants, as well as a brief reference to its sudden destruction.
In another place this record of Plato will be given in full. It will
suffice now to quote briefly what he says concerning its location.
"There was an island situated in front of the straits which
you call the Columns of Heracles (Straits of Gibraltar).
The island was larger than Libya and Asia put together,
and was the way to other islands, and from the island you
might pass through the whole in the opposite continent,
for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is
only a harbor, having a narrow entrance, but that other is
the real sea, and the surrounding land may most truly be
called a continent. Now, in the island of Atlantis, there
was a great and wonderful empire, which had ruled over the
whole island and several others, as well as over part of
the continents; and, besides these, they subjected the
parts of Libya within the Columns of Heracles as far as
Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. The vast power,
thus gathered into one, endeavored to subdue at one blow
our country and yours, and the whole of the land which was
within the straits, and then, Solon, your country shone
forth, in the excellence of her virtues and strength, among
all mankind, for she was the first in courage and military
skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the
rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone,
after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she
defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved
from slavery those who were not yet subjected, and freely
liberated all the others who dwelt within the limits of
Heracles.
"But afterwards, there occurred violent earthquakes and
floods, and in a single day and night of rain, all your
warlike men in a body sunk into the earth, and the island
of Atlantis in a like manner disappeared, and was sunk
beneath the sea. And that is the reason why the sea in
those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there
is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and this
was caused by the subsidence of the island." ("Plato's
Dialogues," ii, 517, Timæus).
But besides Solon and Plato there are other ancient writers who refer
to the lost island of Atlantis.
Ælian, in his "Varia Historia," lib. iii, chap. xvii, states that
Theopompos, who flourished 400 B. C., refers to an interview
between Midas, King of Phrygia, and Sielus, in which the latter speaks
of a great continent larger than Asia, Europe, and Libya together that
existed in the Atlantic.
Proclus quotes a statement from an ancient writer, who speaks about
the islands of the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of
Gibraltar).
Marcellus, in a book on the Ethiopians, refers to seven islands in
the Atlantic whose inhabitants preserve legends of a greater island
(possibly Atlantis), that had dominion over the small islands.
Diodorus Siculus asserts that the Phoenicians discovered a large
island in the Atlantic beyond the Pillars of Hercules several days'
sail from the coast of Africa.
Homer, Plutarch, and other ancient writers, refer to several islands
in the Atlantic situated several thousand stadia from the Pillars of
Hercules. (A stadium was a Greek measure of length equal to 600 feet.
It was equal to one-eighth of a Roman mile, or 625 Roman feet.)
Ignatius Donnelly, in his book, called "Atlantis, the Ante-Diluvian
World," claims that Plato's description of Atlantis which has
generally been regarded as imaginary, was, on the contrary, historic;
that the prehistoric continent of Atlantis was the cradle of the human
race; that here man reached his highest civilization; that Atlantis
was the site of the Garden of Eden, the Gardens of the Hesperides, the
Elysian Fields, as well as Olympus; that, under the forms of the gods
and goddesses of the ancient Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Hindoos,
and the Scandinavians, are related the stories of the kings, queens,
and heroes of Atlantis.
Much that has been claimed for the lost continent can hardly be
regarded in any other light save that of imagination. For example, it
has been asserted that it was from Atlantis that the colonies were
sent out that peopled the coast countries of the Gulf of Mexico, of
parts of the valley of the Mississippi, the basin of the Amazon, the
western coasts of South America, parts of Europe, the shore lands of
the Mediterranean Sea, the coasts of Europe, including the Caspian and
the Black Seas, and even of parts of Africa.
It has also been asserted that this mighty nation of Atlantis carried
the worship of the sun to Egypt, which was one of its first colonies,
and, therefore, the civilization of Egypt was but an offshoot of
prehistoric Atlantis.
But it will be reasonably objected that, if such a mass of land ever
existed in the North Atlantic, some evidences should still be found
on the bed of the ocean. Even though great periods of time have
elapsed since the disappearance of Atlantis, some traces of its former
existence should still remain on the floor of the ocean. Are there
any evidences of an old land mass on this part of the floor of the
Atlantic? The answer is unmistakable.
Deep-sea soundings show beyond question that there still exists in
the North Atlantic in the region where Atlantis is said to have been
located a submarine island, the summits of which appear above the
waters in the Azores and the Canary Islands. This submarine island
has been traced southwest over the bed of the ocean for a distance of
several thousand miles with a breadth of fully 1,000 miles. Toward the
south there is connected with it another submarine island, the summits
of which reach above the surface in the islands of Ascension, St.
Helena, and Tristan d'Acunha.
But the testimony of the submarine islands extends further than this.
According to a number of careful soundings it appears that the bed
of these parts of the ocean, instead of being characterized by a
comparatively level surface due to the gradual accumulation of silt,
possesses, to a great extent, the peculiarly sculptured surfaces which
are only produced by exposure for a long time to the atmosphere.
Other facts might be adduced to show that some time during the first
appearance of man on the earth there was a large land mass connecting
the Eastern and Western Continents. These facts include the wonderful
resemblances existing between the plants and animals of the Eastern
and Western Continents, the close resemblances of the myths and
legends of the races of the Eastern and Western Continents, as well
as the identity of their religious ideas, and the close similarity of
their language so far as relates to certain fundamental ideas. These
facts all point unquestionably to the existence of some large land
mass between the two continents, and to this extent to throw light on
the probable existence of prehistoric Atlantis.