Arizona republican., 1899-08-22
LOST CONTINENTS OF OLD

Sc many and conflicting are the ac-
 counts Of ths lost Atlantis that the idea of such a continent has often been ! treated as little more than joke of Plate. Even iE tis accounts, which he relates in tle form of conversa- tiCn he obtained at third hand from
 a priest of Egypt, who gavs it to Solon the Wise, the details, although precise ! enough, are extremely confusing. At one time, Atlantis is described as a small horseshoe shaped island off the west coast Of Afr.Ca and at another as | al immense continent possessing an
 enormous floating trade and a marvel oUs sys.sem of canals hundreds of miles in length, which made communication with ths. interior a matter eff ease.
 Tee reason of this discrepancy, how ever, is plain, since it $ expressly
 stated that there were many changes in the continent when q. first it stretched from Iceland to Brazil. and from Peru to Africa. Huge cata-
 clysms broke up the continent from
 time to time. until Atlantis dwindIad
 down 10 3 mere island opposite Gib-
 ra1tar. which was fist disappearing be-
 heath the sea 9s the rest had one
 years before Even the Romans and Phcslicians had knowledge of this island opposite the Pillars of Hercules, and it was greatly dreaded by the 0JI-
 time navigatOrs. In fact the tales Of
 .es terrible dangers which the Phoe- nicians spread abroad, even after 1t had altogether disappeared, effectually
 put a stop to any competition on the Iert of the other traders of the Med.t
 h Britain remained So long unCisc0v cred, since the land journey before the con quest of Gaul by Caesar was almost an
 impossibility.
 Now, the sole remaining relics of this once grsat continent in the At
 lantic are few small islands, such as Bermuda. Azores, Madeira, the Cana ries and the Cape Verdes, and there ts every reason t0 think that these in
 their turn are slowly sinking. Some portions of America such as Peru, Mexico and the southeastern part Of the United States, also belonged ws.h- out doubt to this continent, and many relics are left of the ancient civi,za- tion in proof of the fao.. The similar ity in ,i1e Mexican and Egyptian ruins and hi-roglyph.cs are thus explained, since there was uninterrupted com muLf cation bstween the two countries. Indeed, as Pls'.o says, the Egyptians claimed that they came from the west, and, like almost all other nations, they possessed traditions or 2 flood that de strGyed '-he earth. This flood points to the destruction e the lost Atlantis by the tremendous catastrophes which caused 1t 70 sink in the ocean to which it transferred it's name. An Egyptian tradition also ascribes the building of the pyramids for astronomical pur- poses, not the least of which was the observation of the heavens with the idea cf fCretelling floods; not the an nual Overf1owings of the Nile nor any ordinary floods. since the latter are practically unknown in Egypt but ex- traOrdina.y disturbances such as that l which turned thsm cut of their Att E3ntic nome. The manner of this pre- Giction of fcCls is not known, but | that the Atlanteans k13w more about | astronomy than we w'.h all cur mod | ern appliances are likely to know i seems certain. This alone IS proved | by the marvellous accuracy of the pyra md buildings with regard to the rela- | tive position of the heavenly bodies. | The Atlar'.eans are described as of gigantic stature and great power, For | the Greek legends contain many ac-
 
 tarts of PiatO's is,lnd iIro the c0un tries around the Mediterranean.
 They also possessed many arts un- known to us, and probably knew how 10 temper bronze like steel, for they were pre-,sm;nent in mCtallurgy as well as in seamanship and astronomy But the Atlanteans had also traditions of 3 still earlier continent than their own, which exi1 'ed long before Atlantis be- came civilized, and in the east many sim lar traditions are still preserved Bc-Ejes. there are indubitable proofs that such a continer. stretched Gas in dicated by the perpendicular shading in t nap) from Easter island in the Pac with it's peculiar statues, acrC.S 70 CeylOn and Madagascar, fin ally merging into the land which 3fterward became Atlantis. This con- ti1ent has been given the name Of it's fauna. The Australian aborigines are also probably the last decadent Of it's inhabitants. The tra- CitiCns of the east declare that this land, which, of course, is more vaguely defined than Atlantis f'eSelf, was de- stroyed not by water, but by fire-by volcanic cataclysmsa to which the K akatoo eruption is but circum stance
 Ihe psr>liar thin npped statues on '