ATLANTIS — TERMIER. 227 



preserving some of these precious fragments at the Musee de I'Ecole 

 des Mines at Paris. 



The matter was described in 1899 to the Academie des Sciences. 

 Few geologists then comprehended its very great import. Such a 

 lava, entirely vitreous, comparable to certain basaltic stones of the 

 volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands, could solidify into this condition 

 only under atmospheric pressure. Under several atmospheres, and 

 more especially under 3,000 meters of water, it might have crystal- 

 lized. It would appear to us as formed of confused crystals, instead 

 of being composed solely of colloidal matter. The most recent 

 studies on this subject leave no doubt, and I will content myself 

 with recalling the observation of M. Lacroix on the lavas of Mount 

 Pelee of Martinique : Vitreous, when they congealed in the open air, 

 these lavas became filled with crystals as soon as they were cooled 

 under a cover, even not very thick, of previously solidified rocks. 

 The surface which to-day constitutes the bottom of the Atlantic, 900 

 kilometers (562.5 miles) nortli of the Azores, was therefore covered 

 with lava flows while it was still emerged. Consequently, it has been 

 buried, descending 3,000 meters; and since the surface of the rocks 

 has there preserved its distorted aspect, its rugged roughnesses, the 

 sharp edges of the very recent lava flows, it must be that the caving 

 in followed very close upon the emission of the lavas, and that this 

 collapse was sudden. Otherwise atmospheric erosion and marine 

 abrasion would have leveled the inequalities and planed down the 

 entire surface. Let us continue our reasoning. We are here on the 

 line which joins Iceland to the Azores, in the midst of the Atlantic 

 volcanic zone, in the midst of the zone of mobility, of instability, and 

 present volcanism. It would seem to be a fair conclusion, then, that 

 the entire region north of the Azores and perhaps the very region of 

 the Azores, of w^hich they may be only the visible ruins, was very 

 recently submerged, probably during the epoch which the geologists 

 call the present because it is so recent, and which for us, the living 

 beings of to-day, is the same as yesterday. 



If you recall now what I told you a little while ago of the extreme 

 inequality of the depths to the south and the southwest of the Azores, 

 you will agree with me that a detailed dredging to the south and the 

 southwest of these islands would give the same results which have 

 been shown at the north, in the operations of fishing up the tele- 

 graphic cable again. And before your eyes would increase then, 

 almost immeasurably, the buried region, the region which was ab- 

 ruptly engulfed yesterday, and of which the Azores are no more than 

 the evidences, escaped from the general collapse. 



But observe other facts, always of the geologic order. The At- 

 lantic abyss, almost as a whole, seems to be of relatively recent date ; 



