The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-11

but who also believe that there have
been three other continents that have
disappeared just as completely.
TWO ATLANTISES.
It is held that while there seems to
be a discrepancy between the two ac-
counts of Atlantis, there actually is no
discrepancy, as both stories are cor
rect. In other words, there was a time
when the vast continent stretched from
iceland to Brazil and from Peru to
Africa, but huge cataclysms broke up
this continent from time to time until
it dwindled down to a mere island op
pOSite Gibraltar, and even this rem
nant was fast disappearing beneath the
sea as the rest had done ages before.
1t is well known that the Romans and
the Phoenicians had full knowledge of
this island, lying off the Pillars of Her
cules. Navigators dreaded it so much
that they kept away from that part of
the world and it is believed that this
is the reason why Britain was so long
undiscovered. To-day all that remains
of this once great continent are few
small islands, such as Bermuda, the
Azores, Madeira, the CanarieS, and the
Cape Verde Islands. Even these, it is
believed, are slowly sinking.
There are some scientists who hold
that certain portions of the southeast
ern part of the United States, and also
Peru, Mexico and similar countries,
We're once part of the lost continent.
They insist that evidence of this is
found in the fact that the ruins and
relics of these countries represent just
that era of civilization. The similarity
IN the Mexican and Egyptian ruins and
h1eroglyphics has always been regard
ed as az archaeological mystery; but,
II this theory is correct, the explana-
| ton IS found in the fact that there
were opportunities for uninterrupted
! communication between the two coun-
| tries.
One of the oldest of Egyptian tradi-
| lions tells of a flood that DESTROYED the
earth, driving them from their beauti-
ful home in the West. This tradition
| described the most Extraordinary dis
turbances such as might well have oc-
/ CURED when the continent of Atlantis
dropped suddenly into the ocean to
which it transferred its name.
| A GREAT THEORY.
| Strange as all this may seem, it is
| Insignificant in comparison to the the
| DRY that three other continents have
| existed, become civilized and have then
| disappeared from the face of the earth.
| While geography makes no account of
such catastrophies, it is held that there
/ is indubitable proof that at least one
! of these continents existed, and that it
stretched from Easter Island in the
Pacific, with its peculiar statues
across to Ceylon and Madagascar fin
ally merging into the land which after
wards became Atlantis. Lemuria is the
name that has been given to this lost
| land, from the belief that the lemuridae
/ family of animals are a relic of its
/ fauna 1t is also held that the Aus
| tralian aborigines are the last decadent
/ remnant of its inhabitants.
| According to the Eastern traditions
| this great continent was destroyed by
/ volcanic eruptions. At that time, it is
| said, the entire continent sank in the
| waters of the Pacific, but, later, that
/ portion of the country that is now
| known as the Easter Islands became
| detached from the rest of the continent
| and rose again to the surface. Thus is
| explained the existence of those strange
| statues that have SO long been one Of
J the wonders of the world. They are
portraits of the lemurianS, made by
| themselves, the only relics of theil
| handiwork that survived the great
| cataclysmS.
In order to obtain even the vaguesi
| account of the other two continents
| that have been supposed to have dis
| same Eastern record. AS to what they
undecided. 1t is held, however, thai
one embraced the far north at a time
when mammoths and mastodonS and
| elephants dwelt there in the midst Of
| the seni-tropical vegetation of tbs
Eocene period. The other actually in
| cluded even the North Pole itself
| 1t is necessary to get away from the
| prosaic nineteenth century habits Of
| thought in order to comprehend JUS
what the existence of these lost con