Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-11-22

IL broken and the bowl mcrges into the
Antarctic ocean.
Assuming that this Is a correct descrip- |
ton OF the Pacific basin---which, from |
want OF adequate soundings, we are far |
from being sure Oft compares curious
ly with the Atlantic ocean, about which |
we know good deal. The latter ocean
has bench or terrace, varying from flity
to 100 miles In width, and from nothing
TO 100 iathoms In depth, which borders
the continents that inclose the ocean. Be-
You'd this bench deep water--in places as
deep as $500 fathoms--comes suddenly.
The ocean basin IL trayersed from north
to south by plateau, extending
from the Azores, or even further south,
TO Icelandi on either side OF the
plateau IL Il deep valley OF water. On the
plateau depths of 1000 iathoms are rare;
1900 iathoms IL the usual average. But
Just outside the edges OF the plateau
there are places where no bottom Is found
at 5000. The theory OF cosmogonists IL
that this plateau was once dry land, and
that II sunk to depth Of nearly two miles
beneath the surface OF the OCead In a con
vulston OF nature. IL was by coupling
! this hypothesis with Plato's remarkable
account Of the lost Island OF Atlantis,
| from which, according To the Egyptians,
| they and the Greeks, and indeed all the
enlightened peoples Of ancient times de-
rived tholr civilization, that lgnatius Don.
nelly constructed his interesting theory
Of lost continent.
Sir William Dawson has not furnished
the public with the reasons that induced
him TO suppose that the Creators work Ia
llnishCd In the Atlantic aud unfinished In
the Pacific, II caubOt have been that he
argued that there had been no subsistence
of tho bottom OF the latter for the evil
dencos OF such catastrophe were long
ago pointed out by Dana aud Darwin
Inc coral insect viii not build below 100
or $50 feet beneath the surface OF the wa
ter. Yet coral dotrtus has beer
brought up from depths of 1000 tC
5000 fathoms, and this throughout Poly.
nesia, as far north as or 8 degrees
above the tropiC OF Capricorn, and as fai
south AS Australia. Hence, II seems tina
what IN now the bottom Of deep set
/ must one have been the bottom OF ,
, shallow sea, suGh as Behring sea Is now
= Again, the colossal remains on Easte
4 Island show that at Que time or other tina
h island must have been connected witt
: islands now lying 1000, 1000 aud 5000 mile
n further west. They could not have beef
!, cannot feed It's people, much les
/, prove home for art. The islander
d cannot have sailed to Easter iror
F, Polynesia, for they cannot beat to WIND
!. ward In their lightdraught canoes, an
n the tradewinds blow from the east an
n southeast for eleven months In the yea
n Nor could they have come from the we,
/. OF South America, for they are men OF
a different race from any that ever lived o
Il this continent, being, In fact, obyiousl
Il members OF the PolynesiAn famil.
n Hence the former existence OF a Soui
v Peolfc continent, though not absolute
+. demonstrated, is rendered so proba6
N that no man of science would be surprise
q at the discovery Of absolute evidence
r It's having been,
d Geographers have amused themsely,
20 by recoustruetlng the lost continent,
d Donnelly reconstructed Atlantis. TINT
Ie have taken existing Islands for the tol
o OF mountain ranges, and imagined va
a leys between them, spreading from rams
n TO range. Thus Dana imagines two pril
10 olpal mountain ranges, one starting fro
10 the Hawaiian group and running sou'
d through the Mendana, Society, and Pea
n Islands, and smother starting from u