12 Atlantis and Lemuria : [January, 
“ old world.” But to this interpretation there is a fatal 
objection. If we cross the Atlantic we find among the tribes 
of Central America corresponding traditions of an island to 
the eastward which had been suddenly overwhelmed and 
destroyed by an earthquake. This agreement of reports 
among nations who can scarcely be supposed to have come 
in contact seems to point to the former existence of a land 
intervening between Africa and America, and has, not un- 
naturally, made a deep impression upon the public mind. 
Further evidence of a confirmatory tendency was not want- 
ing. The unnavigable character ascribed to the Atlantic in the 
days before the expedition of Columbus might be an exag- 
gerated description of shoals and sand-banks remaining after 
the disappearance of the ill-fated island, and the present 
freedom of the ocean from such obstructions would at once 
follow from a continued subsidence of the area in question. 
The traCt of densely-matted sea-weed westward from the 
Azores, which Columbus described as scarcely penetrable by 
his vessels, has been considered as a sort of buoy indicating 
the former position of this sunken ]and. The well-known 
volcanic character of the bed of the Atlantic from the coast 
of Portugal to the West Indies would afford every facility 
for the traditional catastrophe. It is further urged that, as 
shown by the soundings performed by the Challenger Expe- 
dition, a ridge of land extends from north to south along the 
middle of the Atlantic, over which the ocean is much 
shallower than on either side, rarely exceeding 1000 fathoms 
in depth, whilst on either hand are abysses twice and even 
three times deeper. There are, further, four places where the 
ridge rises above the sea level and appears as dry land, viz., 
the Azores, St. Paul’s Rocks, Ascension, and Tristan da 
Cunha. An upward movement of about 6000 feet would 
therefore convert much of this ridge into dry land, whilst 
the islands just mentioned would then appear as lofty 
mountains. 
So far, then, the story of “ lost Atlantis ” appears very 
plausible. But on closer examination not a few serious 
doubts cannot fail to suggest themselves to the enquirer. 
Let us turn first to the Greek traditions. Plato’s account 
of Atlantis, as contained in his “ Timseus,” though tolerably 
circumstantial, is very indirect in its origin. Solon, during 
his visit to Egypt, is said to have learned certain particulars 
touching the position of Atlantis and the wars waged by its 
kings from a priest of Sais. Now, as Plato flourished two 
centuries after Solon, the first question is how had the tra- 
dition been handed down ? Again, how had the story reached 
