250 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY iv 



Africa. 1 The Caspian and the Aral seas have 

 been one, and their united waters have probably 

 communicated with both the Arctic and the 

 Mediterranean oceans. 2 The greater part of 

 North America has been under water, and has 

 emerged. It is highly probable that a large part 

 of the Malayan Archipelago has sunk, and that its 

 primitive continuity with Asia has been destroyed. 

 Over the great Polynesian area subsidence has 

 taken place to the extent of many thousands of 

 feet subsidence of so vast a character, in fact, 

 that if a continent like Asia had once occupied 

 the area of the Pacific, the peaks of its mountains 

 would now show not more numerous than the 

 islands of the Polynesian Archipelago. 3 



What lands may have been thickly populated 

 for untold ages, and subsequently have disappeared 

 and left no sign above the waters, it is of course 

 impossible for us to say ; but unless we are to make 

 the wholly unjustifiable assumption that no dry 

 land rose elsewhere when our present dry land 

 sank, there must be half-a-dozen Atlantises 

 beneath the waves of the various oceans of the 

 world. But if the regions which have undergone 



p Later investigations tend to show that only a small pail of 

 the Sahara has been submerged. 1894.] 



[ 2 With reference to certain reclamations that have been 

 made Apropos of a speculation set forth in the essay on tho 

 Aryan Question (infra], I draw attention to the fact that this 

 passage was written twenty-nine years ago. 1894.] 



[ 3 The occurrence of this extensive subsidence is disputed. 

 1894.] 



