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VI. 



SOME EEMAEKS ON THE ATLANTIS PROBLEM. 

 By E. E. SCHAEFF, B.Sc, Ph.D. 



[Read Notember 10, 1902.] 



The problem of the former existence of a land beyond thd pillars of 

 Hercules has occupied the mind of man since the early dawn of 

 history. Plato -^vas the first to record the story of this mysterious 

 land, to which the name of " Atlantis " was given. According to his 

 narrative, Solon is said to have visited the city of Sais in Egypt, and 

 there to have heard, from priests, of the ancient Empire of Atlantis 

 and of its final overthrow by a convulsion of nature. From the 

 account given by Plato, this Atlantis was a continent lying in the 

 Atlantic ocean beyond the Strait of Gibraltar. 



Quite a flood of literature has appeared on this subject since it 

 was first handed down to us by Plato. By some it was scouted as a 

 vague and inconsistent tradition; while others believed in the story, 

 and republished the account with many fanciful amplifications of 

 their own. Others again, in their zeal for speculation, enlarged the 

 Atlantis so as to make it join the New World and the Old across the 

 Atlantic, and argued that the early races of man must have migrated 

 on this land-bridge from Europe to America, and have peopled the 

 latter continent in this manner. 



Although the original narrative has thus led to extravagant 

 theories, thoughtful men have, from time to time, expressed their 

 conviction either that it rests on some actual historic basis or that the 

 legend was a vestige of a widely-spread tradition. I need only mention 

 in this connection the names of Humboldt and Sir Daniel "Wilson. 



The Atlantis problem, however, was only raised to scientific 

 importance when modem research revealed the fact that the living, as 

 well as the extinct, floras of Europe have quite a number of types in 

 common with North America. 



The first naturalist who attempted the solution of the Atlantis 

 problem from a botanical point of view was Prof. Unger, an Austrian 

 botanist. The Swiss naturalist, Prof. Heer, elaborated Unger's- 



