144 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



sounded over the same and contiguous regions; and in 

 July, 1874, the German ship Gazelle. The result is the 

 discovery of another continental stump. It stretches from 

 the Madeira islands to the coast of Portugal, and from the 

 Canaries to the African coast, and thence to Gibraltar. 

 The Canaries and the islands of Madeira, Desertas, and 

 Porto Santo, are undoubtedly the relics of a former conti- 

 nent. 



Behold the fable of Atlantis converted into modern fact! 

 as Schliemann has made the myths of Homer solid his- 

 tory. This sunken land lies exactly in the position of the 

 ancient Atlantis. The Guanches, or original inhabitants 

 of the Canaries, were the remnants of the nation which 

 sent its conquering armies against the Berbers and the 

 Tyrrhenians and the Gauls. But the Guanches had lost 

 all memory of the warlike deeds of their ancestors; they 

 were even ignorant of the existence of the continents of 

 Europe and Africa, and declared to the discoverers of their 

 islands, " God placed us on these islands, and then forsook 

 and forgot us." These Atlantidean people were known in 

 Europe as Iberians. They belonged to the family of Ham- 

 ites, and were members of the Mediterranean race, to which 

 we belong. 



We have no need to plunge beneath the sea and explore 

 for fossil continents to be convinced that continents have 

 their old age. The records of wasted areas are illuminated 

 by the daily sun. The Alleghanies have been lowered nine 

 thousand feet. When, at the close of the Coal Period, the 

 crust of the earth yielded to the long-increasing strain, 

 huge folds were uplifted from Vermont to Alabama; and 

 some of them attained an altitude of 15,000 feet. Since 

 that fearful throe of nature, the elements have been busy 



