SCIENCE IN ARCADY. 



^ MY TRLANDS. 



^■About the miflflle of the Miocene period, as well as I 

 can now remember (for I made no note of the precise 



,^date at the moment), my islands first appeared above 

 he stormy sheet of the North-West Atlantic as a little 

 isinif f^roup of mountain tops, capping a broad boss of 

 Biibmarino volcanoes. My attention was originally 

 called to the new archipelago by a brother investigator 

 of my own aerial race, who pointed out to me on the 

 ving that at a spot some 900 miles to the west of the 

 Portuguese coast, just opposite the place where your 

 rmishrooni city of Lisbon now stands, the water of the 

 ocean, as seen in a bird's-eye view from some three 

 thousand feet above, formed a distinct greenish patch 

 finch as always betokens shoals or rising ground at the 

 bottom. I'lying out at once to the point he indicated, 

 and poising myself above it on my broad pinions at a 

 giddy altitude, I saw at a glance that my friend was 

 (juite right. Land mnking was in progress. A volcanic 

 tipheaval was taking place on the bed of the sea. A new 

 island group was being forced right up by lateral pressure 



B 



