The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-12-23
A LOST CONTINENT,
THE EVIDENCE THAT 1T WAS M
QUILTED BY THE PACIFIC

'eia1ions of Modern
enoe--Curious Facts Which Have n
De'rihs on the Question-Two Appau.
ing Alternatives Presented
LlO'le as we know of the prehistoric advs,-
lures OF the Atlantic ocean and tba cor,,+,;a.
which border it, we know still lecs 90 A.. 10
Any anu us antecedents. Reasoning upon the
ua'e OF the earthquakes of 1854 and 1858 Pro.
LESSONS Barrie and Hcchstetter reckoned tho
average depth of that ocean to be from oo0
10 S,4OO fathoms. The Tuscarora which
traversed the Pacific from California 70 To-.
pan via the Sandwich islands, taking sopnd.
iinss OH Uile way-with view to the LAYING
VI an ocean cable-found an average deptb Of
apout 2,2O0 fathoms, with depressions of 4 Oo0
lannon's. The Challenger in the South Pm
enc FOUND an average depth of about $500
lannon's; also with deep spots reaching occa-
SoAally $500 fathoms But in the northern
racine very different state of things is
found. In Behring sea it is an exception to
ma depth of 100 fathoms; twenty-five,
thirty, forty and fifty fathoms are the rule.
round the fur seal islands-St. Paul and st.
deorge-bottom is reached at TWENTY-FIVE.
thirty, forty and fifty fathoms; in the center
OF behrlng straits the depth marked on the
coast survey charts is twenty five fathoms
Again. at the south the average depth of the
ocean between Cali and New Zealand is
known to be about 1,5O0 fathoms. Thus, so
far as we know-and that is precious little
the basin OF the Pacific is circular bowl
about 5000 fathms deep in the deepest part,
with a well defin d rim on the western, north
ern and eastern sides, and with innumerable
Islands cropping up all over, like the peaks of
the mountains Of submerged continent. On
the southern side the rim is broken off and
the bowl merges into the Antarctic ocean,
BASIN OF THE PACIFIC.
Assuming that this is correct description
OF The Pacific basin-which, from want of
adequate soundings, we are far from being
sure Oft compares curiously with the At
lantlc ocean, about which we know good
deal. The latter ocean has bench or ter
race, varying from so to 100 miles in width,
and from nothing to 100 fathoms in depth,
which borders the continents that inclose the
ocean. Beyond this bench deep water-in
places as deep as $500 fathoms-comes sud
denly. The ocean basin is traversed from
North to south by plateau, extending from
the Azores, or even further south, to Iceland;
on either side of the plateau is deep valley
of water. On the plateau depths Of 1900
fathoms are rare; 1900 fathoms is 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
is that this plateau was once dry land, and
that it sunk to depth of nearly two miles
beneath the surface of the ocean in a convul-
sion of nature. 1t was by coupling this n.y.
pothesis with Plato's remarkable account of
the lost island of Atlantis, from which, &C
2ording to the Egyptians, they and the
Greeks, and indeed all the enlightened peo-
pies of ancient times, derived their civiliza-
ton, that Ignatius Donnelly 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 is finished in
the Atlantic and unfinished in the Pacific 1t
have been that he argued that there
had been no subsistence of the bottom of the
latter, for the evidences of such catastrophe
were long ago pointed out by Dana and Oar
win. The coral insect will not build below
100 or $50 feet beneath the surface of the
water. Yet coral detritus has been brought
up from depths of 1900 to 5000 fathoms,
and this throughout Polynesia, as far north as
2 degs. or dogs. above the tropic of Capri
corn, and as far south as Australia. Hence
It seems that what is now the bottom of a
deep sea must once have been the bottom Of
a shallow sea- such as Behring sea is now.
SOME VERY CURIOUS FACTS
Again, the colossal remains on Easter
island show that at some time or other that
island must have been connected with islands
now lying 1000, 1900 and 5000 miles further
west. They could not have been erected by
the natives of an island which cannot feed its
people, much less prove home for art The
islanders could not have sailed to Easter from
Polynesia, for they cannot beat to wlndward
in their light draught canoes, and the trade
winds blow from the east and southeast for
eleven months in the year. Nor could they
have come from the west of South America,
for they are men of different race from
any that ever lived on this continent, being,
in fact, obviously members of the Polyneslan
family. Hence, the former existence OF
South Pacific continent, though not abso-
lutely demonstrated, is rendered SO probable
that no man of science would be surprised at
the discovery of absolute evidence of its hay
in been.
Geographers have amused themselves by
the lost continent, as Don
nelly reconstructed Atlantis. They have
taken existing islands for the tops of noun
tain ranges, and imagined valleys between
them, spreading from range to range. Thus,
Dana imagines two principal mountain
ranges. one starting from the Hawahan
GROIN and running south to the Mendana'
Society and Pearl islands, and another start
inc from the Society group and running
westwardly through the Navigators, the FIJI
group. the Solomon group, New Guinea the
Snice islands, Celebes, Borneo, Sumatra ana
Joining the continent of Asia at Malacca'
Perhaps this theory of cosmogony is as recon-
cilable with the facts as any other.
II involves two alternatives, each morea
Mailing than the other If there was "a.
cific continent, how did it disappear! Dld IL
fall crashing down through the waters IN an
instant. in some mighty earthquake WHICH
hurled millions of human beings into ETERNITY
with such awful swiftness that no one knew
70 hiun7 0r did IL SUD-