THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. lOI 



THE LOST ATLANTIS. 



Bead before Geological Section, 

 BY COL. C, C, GRANT. 



Did it ever exist, or did the Roman Naturalist, Pliny, sim- 

 ply express a popular belief among his countrymen in his time 

 regarding its submergence? Can any reliable proof be pro- 

 duced of such a fearful catastrophe as the destruction of an 

 inhabited continent in the North Atlantic? No satisfactory 

 answer, perhaps, can be given to the above questions. 



Herbert Spencer, who is looked upon by many as the 

 greatest Philosopher of the age, some years since arrived .it 

 the conclusion "that all Myths appear to have a foundation 

 in fact." 



In our own days we find many instances of the elevation 

 or depression of the earth's crust in several places, as for in- 

 stance at the mouth of "the Indus," where a large tract of 

 country was submerged, with its villages and fort in 1819, 

 \vhile another tract known as "the Ullah Bund" (God's gift) 

 was elevated. Again, in 1822, about 100 miles of the Coast of 

 Chili was raised from four to six feet. Yet more recently is- 

 lands in the North Pacific, with their inhabitants, disappeared 

 altogether.Independent of the few out of the many sudden 

 changes enumerated, all Geologists know that a gradual ele- 

 vation or depression is taking place at the present moment in 

 various localities. The late Sir C. L3'ell discovered instances 

 of this kind of elevation along the shores of the Baltic, where 

 places which a century ago were at sea level, are now several 

 feet above it. In this case the rise has been noted since 1820, 

 and it amounts to some inches. At the North Shorfe of Anti- 

 costi, in rear of the settlement at "English Bay," the writer 

 traced an ancient beach containing portions of the skeleton of 



