The Greeley tribune., 1905-10-05
I'D TIME MYSTERIES
SOME RIDDLES IN LIFE THAT HAVE
NEVER BEEN SOLVED.

SOME RIDDLES IN LIFE THAT HAVE
NEVER BEEN SOLVED.
Lands snA Peoples That Are SrpDos.
ed to Have DisaDpearsA-The Leg.
end Of the Lest AtlaAtis-TAs An
cient Pygnloa Of Tennsssos.
The public appetite Graves nothing
10 much as riddle, a secret to guess,
but nowadays every mans life is 20
bare. SO exploited. and we live 80 much
out Of doors from the cradle to the
grave that very few facts or fancies
can be kept hidden. There were, how
ever, certain mysteries which during
the last century the American public
pondered and worried over which are
yet unsolved and, except by few old
people, are almost forgotten.
One of these, perhaps the Oldest, 10
the question whether beneath the At
lantic not far from the Bahamas there
Is sunken continent known to the
Greeks as the lost Atlantis. 1t was
still talked Of familiarly in the first
half of the last century. Seafaring
men declared that when the water was
calm and clear they had caught
glimpses of ancient cities beneath. with
their glittering roofs and spires, and
that in certain conditions Of the atmos-
phere the tolling of the bells could be
distinctly heard. Treatises were writ
ten by learned professors to prove the
probability Of the legend, and other
treatises, as learned and vehement, to
flout and jeer at it as an idle fable.
Certain hotsam and jetsam, which
was washed ashore after heavy storms
on the coasts of Georgia and Florida
logs Of strange woods unknown to this
generation, coins, bits Of carved marble
and beaten brass-was ascribed to the
long dead workmen of Atlantis.
The lost colony ts now known only
as the subject of an ancient fable, but
years ago it was by most educated
people believed to be an actual fact.
Another much discussed mystery
then was what had become Of the col
ony Of civilized people who at the time
of the settlement of the country lived
on the western coast Of Greenland.
That country is, as you will see by a
glance at the map, shaped something
like the half Of an egg. cut lengthwise,
the fat side upon the earth, the point
to the south. The rounded center Is a
heap Of impenetrable ice mountains.
As the centuries go by enormous
bodies of ice slip from it into the sea
and, breaking off, drift slowly down
along our COASTS. These are the Ice
bergs Of the Atlantic ocean. Now,
along the narrow slip Of habitable land
which edges Greenland on this side.
tradition says, once dwelt a civilized
people who, both in knowledge and the
habits of life, were far in advance OF
the Laplanders.
They were we'll known to the early
Danish navigators, who made frequent
mention of them in their logs and re-
ports. The question yet unanswered is,
Where are they now? Tradition among
the Laplanders reports that the whole
colony two centuries ago emigrated In
body to the eastern coast OF Green
land, attempting to cross the hitherto
impenetrable masses of ice in the cen
ter. No tidings ever have come back
from them. Some Of the scientific men
who accompanied the Hayes expedi-
ton made this question matter OF
special study. They reported that
doubt could hardly exist that these
people did once inhabit that part OF the
coast and that they now had utterly
vanished. If they had been swept
away BY a pestilence their household
belongings at least would be left to tell
of them, but not shard Of pottery,
not a single grave, remains TO snow
that they ever lived. 1t was supposed
nv the Danish missionaries that they
had perished In the ranges OF ice
mountains, but among the Lapianders
there were traditions that they had
safely reached the western coast ana
settled there, now forming civiiizeo
community, wholly isolated from tne
rest of the world. One of Nansen
VOYAGES was, in fact, directed to that
coast in the hope of finding THIS col
ony. He was not able to reacn tue
northern part of the coast, ana the
mystery is therefore yet unsolved.
Another problem which perplexed the
lost generation was the long eXtlhct
pygmy race which centuries ago un-
doubtedly inhabited the Tennessee
mountains. Legends among the III
dams told of such a tribe of dwaris'
who were supposed to be OF more IN
tellicence than the red men. But these
legends were very hazy. burylhs
ground, however. actually was ui'eol
cred in the early part Of the last cen
tury in which all of the skeletons were
of pygmy proportions. Some OF theh'
- ,r;.1 away tn college museums.