Atlantis. 1"' 



America as the " continent beyond" whence " there was a passage for 



travelers of that day." 



In the interpretation of the tradition, it might be said that we should 

 allow something for oriental exaggeration and the imperfect knowledge 

 of the ancient Egyptians respecting the relative dimensions of countries 

 with which they supposed themselves familiar, and should therefore 

 place little stress upon the traditional size of the island lying nearest 

 their territory— if, indeed, the description: "larger than Lybia and 

 Asia put together," were not in reality intended to apply to the 

 continent, as would seem most natural. Upon the same principle, we 

 may make allowance for the magnitude of the alleged cataclysm in 

 which all trace of the islands and then- inhabitants was lost, and 

 suppose it to have been but the subsidence of some smaller islands, 

 perhaps of a volcanic nature, by reason whereof communication with 

 Egypt was cut off. The early navigators, as is well known, had not 

 the means of accomplishing extended voyages in the open sea, except 

 where a chain of islands enabled them to divide their journey into 

 short stages, That this was the mode of intercourse between Egypt 

 and the Atlantic continent, appears from the tradition itself; and we 

 may easily understand how the accounts of such a subsidence, with the 

 accompanying destruction of life, brought to Egypt by terrified 

 mariners, would magnify the event into a terrible cataclysm, the 

 recollection of which would effectually deter further exploration in 

 that quarter for ages. 



The reason assigned by the tradition for making no further efforts 

 to ascertain the nature and extent of the alleged catastrophe, namely: 

 that the sea„where the islands had formerly stood, was rendered im- 

 passable by great depths of mud, would seem to favor this interpreta- 

 tion, for volcanic scorise have been known to cover the sea for leagues 

 in extent during and after eruptions, so as to impede navigation 

 for a considerable period. 



Again, if we examine the map of the Atlantic ocean we shall 

 discover in the North Atlantic, stretching to the westward of Europe 

 and North Africa, the outline of a vast island represented by the 

 conventional marks designating a swamp or shoal. It is called the 

 Sargasso sea, and is generally avoided by ships on account of the great 

 quantity of sea-weed there collected. The depth of this sea varies 

 from one thousand to ten thousand feet. The late Edward Forbes 

 conceived that this weed first grew on an old coast line, since sub- 

 merged, forming the western extremity of Europe and North Africa, 

 and extending far into the Atlantic. Sir Charles Lyell, on the other 

 hand, combats this view, and attributes the collection of sea Aveed in 



