237 
dd to exist, because it is transformed into a continent? 
but we may suppose the possibility that some parts of 
the island have been swallowed up by earthquakes; 
as for example, the portion which filled up the space 
now forming the gulf of Tripolis from the cape Bon 
near Tunis, to the cape Ras Sem near Derna. The 
great banks of Kerkena that are in this gulf strengthen 
this system, if we look upon them as the remainders of 
a country submerged. This would coincide with the 
last circumstance related by the prie st of Sais of the 
island Atlantidis. It is, however, impossible to sup- 
pose, that such a submersion could have taken place in 
four-and- twenty hours, with an island so extensive as 
the Atlantidis is supposed to have been, and its moun- 
tains, if we consider what immense abysses would have 
been required to produce so prodigious an effect. A 
supposition of this kind would be quite gratuitous, and 
not at all supported by the analogous examples which 
natural history has furnished since the last great ca- 
taclysm. If we suppose that the Atlantidis extended 
to the cape of Rcis Sem, then this part of the Atlanti- 
dis will be found opposite to and at a small distance 
from Tyrrhenia, Greece, Asia, Eg) pt, and Lybia; but 
these were the theatres of the conquests of the Atlantes, 
of which the metropolis was in the centre. 
It would be easy to heap proofs upon proofs, and 
reasoning upon reasoning, to support my system; but 
treating this question only as a secondary one, and sub- 
ordinate to the idea that an interior sea is existing in the 
middle of Africa, I shall leave its solution to the learn- 
ed critics who have already been discussing it. How- 
ever, without dwelling on the numerous systems to 
