DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLY POPULAR 

 JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. IV, No. 44. AUGUST 1923. 



PRICE Is. NET. 



DISCOVERY. A Monthly Popular Journal of Know- 

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Edited by Edward Liveing, B.A., 23 Westminster 

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Editorial Notes 



The idea of a " lost Atlantis " has for several centuries 

 fascinated mankind and attracted its more imaginative 

 members to weave fantastic legends about some once 

 beautiful- continent inhabited by a highly civilised 

 people before it sank into the waves of the Pacific 

 thousands of years ago. In the July number of 

 Discovery we published an account of a new theory 

 about the structure of the earth. ' The theory is that 

 of a German geologist, Kober, and in one sense is a 

 development of Professor Wegener's new theory of 

 land and continent formation. Kober puts forward 

 the idea that in the process of cooling the earth's 

 crust has come to consist of large, solid blocks of 

 matter moving gradually through a softer layer. 

 The large blocks meet each other, the softer layer 

 being pushed up in between them during the gradual 

 process of contact. In this way mountain masses and 

 high land are thrust up above the sea level, only to 

 subside again millions of years later as the blocks 

 beneath corrode owing to their pressure against each 

 other. Such is the theory in bald outline. Though 

 it must be accepted with considerable reserve and is 

 certain to provoke much criticism, it gives a plausible 

 explanation of some quite recent earth disturbances — 



1 See p. 171, The Structure of the Earth, by O. H. T. Rishbeth, 

 MA. 



of the strange fate, for instance, that appears to be 

 overtaking Kamchatka and of the earthquakes last 

 November along the coast of Chile. 



The disintegration of Kamchatka, that vast north- 

 eastern peninsula of Asia, 780 miles long and at its, 

 widest part 280 miles broad, appears to be taking 

 place at enormous speed. An article in the Daily 

 News in June of this year mentioned that " from the 

 beginning of February till April 16, no fewer than 195 

 shocks were recorded, gradually increasing in mtensity 

 until houses collapsed and huge fioes of ice from the 

 ocean were thrown far inland. On AprU 18 a parti- 

 cularly violent shock occurred, accompanied by a 

 tidal wave. . . . The most extraordinary feature 

 recorded is that the water of the Kamchatka River 

 has vanished into the bowels of the earth." 

 ***** 



Kamchatka, according to Kober, is part of a geologic- 

 ally new, and therefore unstable, orogene zone ; the 

 west coast of South America, including Chile, has been 

 similarly classified by him. This brings us to the 

 borders of our " lost Atlantis." ^^'hatever caused the 

 disappearance of this huge land mass, and whether we 

 accept Kober 's theory of subsidence owing to corrosion 

 as a reasonable explanation, certain it is that Atlantis 

 did once exist. We have not only geological, but also 

 botanical and zoological, evidence in support of its 

 existence. It was more than an island, and it stretched 

 from Brazil to Australia, even mcluding a vast portion, 

 if not the whole of, Africa in its extent. Geologists 

 call it Gondwana Land and calculate that it existed 

 some 20,000,000 years ago ! It is natural that that 

 portion of this ancient continent which lies beneath 

 the southern waters of the Pacific should attract the 

 greatest interest, for m the scattered archipelagoes of 

 PohTiesia we still have the remains, the mountain 

 peaks, as it were, of the " lost Atlantis." 



***** 



Thorough investigations of the Pacific wiU take 

 place in the near future, and three scientific expedi- 

 tions have alreadv been organised with these purposes 

 in view. The Natural History Department of the 



197 



