The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-10
LOST ISLANDS.
The Crust Of the Earth Readjusting
Itself Gradually.

The Crust of the Earth Readjusting
Itself Gradually.
from the San Francisco Coll.
A few days ago mention was made IN this
column Of the alleged disappearance in an
earthquake Of the principal island of the
Sangir group, In longitude 1852, midway
between the islands of Mindanao and Cele-
bes. News now comes that Dutch skipper
sailing along the northwest coast of Austria
liza reports the disappearance of Expedition
Island at the mouth Of Collier bay, in
Western Australia. The island Is almost
exactly in the same longitude as Sangir
Island, and nearly 200 south.
As the sea In which it lies Is unfrequented
by shipping It is quite possible that its sub
sidenoe, IL 1t occurred, was simultaneous
with the submersion of Sangir below the
waves. The Dutch skipper reports that he
sailed over the spot where the island had
been and found eight fathoms Of water,
whereas all round the place the depth was
normal for the Sea OF Timor, say 20 to 100
fathoms. Tbs island was thirteen miles
long by one mile wide; 10 was forty miles
from the coast Of Australia.
Scientific periodicals note the event as
fresh illustration OF the changes of level
which are taking place in the southernmost
continent The coast Of the colony of Vic
torta and OF Tasmania 10 known to be rising.
Each year the land gains little on the sea,
SO that in places 1t is found necessary TO
lengthen piers in order to maintain the
original depth of water at their seward
end. To balance this the coast of Northern
and Northwestern Australia is gradually
but slowly sinking, and the sea is gaining
on the land. The subsidence is not confined
to Australia. 1t extends to many of the
islands of the East Indian archipelago
from the straits Of Sunda to the Southern
Philippine islands. The inhabitants point
to beaches which are now covered by the
waves al low water, but which in past
times were sites of villages The same
phenomenon is observed In several places on
the western coast of South America.
The whole crust of the globe is probably
In motion, changing its relative level, as 1t
gradually adjusts itself 90 the contractions
or the interior on which it rests. In the
north the circumpolar regions are rising. II
we had records to guide US we should prob
ably find that Grant Land, Grinnen Land
and Franz Joset's Land are several inches
higher than they were when they were first
discovered And simultaneously the coast
OF Greenland in the neighborhood of Disco
Is sinking, so that stakes which were driven
into the beach TO moor boats to are nov
under water. Il is easy TO understand that,
without any volcanic agency, the surface of
the earth, resting a. il does on foundation
which must be incandescent, must rise and
fall as the action OF fire expands and con-
tracts It's subterranean support.
This process has gone on throughout all
time. In the Arabian sea, not far from the
mouth of the Indus. the voyagers in the
Bombay steamers can see, when he water
is clear, the peaks and mirsrets Of drowned
city at the bottom Of the OCEAN. The
steamer passes over them as they lie in their
watery grave. At some far distant period
that city lived and fourished, probably on
the ocean border, and may have been a
place of trade and prosperity. The hungry
waves gradually rose and rose, capturing a
street here, a square there, until the people
were driven out and the city was engulfed.
1t was an illumination on great scale of
the action of the agency which terminated
the terrestrial life Of Expedition Island.
Donnelly, in his story of Atlantis, sup
poses that the alternate uprising and sub
sidence of the earth's crust eliminated, in
the case of that lost continent. in a fright
full catastrophe, in which man and all his
works persisted in night. This theory i'm
plies active seismic agency, and all that can
be said of il is that no example of such
work has occurred within the historical
period. In our time the crust of the earth
probably rises and fails continually all over
the globs, but the changes are impercepti-
bic to the observer; ID is only where earth
quakes come into play that whole islands or
districts suddenly vanish from sight.