The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1905-10-27
OLD TIME MYSTERIES
SOME RIDDLES IN LIFE THAT HAVE
NEVER BEEN SOLVED.

The public appetite Graves nothing
30 much as a riddle. a secret to guess.
but nowadays every mans life is SO
bare, so exploited. aud we live so much
out Of doors from the cradle to the
grave that very few facts or fancies
can be kept hidden. There were. how
i 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. Is
i the question whether beneath the Al
| lantic not far from the Bahamas thee
| is Sunken continent known II tie
Greeks as the lost Atlantis. II was
| still talked of Familiarity in the first
half of the last century. Scattering
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 We're writ
probability OF the legend, and other
| treatiseS. as learned and vehement. to
| fiout and jeer at it as an idle fable.
Certain fotSam 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 is 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
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 Il
| 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 civilized
| people who. both in knowledge and the
habits of life, were far In advance Of
| the Laplanders.
| They were well 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
| q 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 a matter Of
special study. They reported that a
{ doubt could hardly exist that these
| people did once inhabit that part of the
coast and that they now had utterly
\ VI.
/ away by pestilence their household
belongings at least would be left to tell
| of them, but not a shard Of pottery.
; not a single grave. remains to show
| that they ever lived. 1t was supposed
! by the Danish missionaries that they
| had persisted in the ranges of ice
! mountains. but among the LaDlaI,ders
! there were traditions that they had
safely reached the western coast and
settled there. now forming a civilized
community, wholly isolated from the
rest of the world. One Of Nansen's
| voyages was, in fact, directed to that
! coast in the hope Of finding this col
/ ony. He was not able to reach the
northern part Of the coast, and the
mystery is therefore yet unsolved.
| Another problem which perplexed the
! last generation was the long extinct
| pygmy race which centuries ago un-
doubtedly inha bited the Tennessee
mountains. Legends among the In
| dians told of such a tribe of dwarfs,
j who were supposed to be Of more in
telligence than the red men. But these
! legends were very hay. \ burying
ground, however, actually was diScov-
cred in the early part of the last cen
! fury in which all of the skeletons were
i of pygmy proportions Some of them
were carried away to college museums.
But as far as l know no scientific In
quiry has ever been directed TO this
question.
! Another curious matter which caused
much speculation in the early part of
the last century was the fate of the
colony Of French emigres who fed to
this country in the eighteenth century
| and took refuge in the northern part
/ - Ii