The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-11-22
FabIed Cities Submerged
BY ARTHUR RI. }. kEANE.

time the city of Vineta was marked
on the Prussian maps, but geological
and historical Investigations made To-
cally by Prof. Virchow and others
have proved beyond doubt that
town never could have stood upon
the site indicated. Researches into
the origin of the legend led to the
remarkable discovery that the name
OF Vineta was nothing more than a
corruption of Jumneta and Jumne-
the old Wendish name of the modern
town OF Violin, or Julin as it was
called by the Danes. The reported
fabulous wealth owned by Vineta
was to certain extent true, as Julin
or Jumne was-according to the old
historian Adam, of Bremen-a very
large and remarkably wealthy town
in the tenth century, doing even then
trade with Arabia, Asia and the
coast towns of northern Africa. To
use the historians own words, this
old Wendish town was Certainly
the greatest of all the towns now
existing in Europe" When the DAN
ish King Waldemar the Great crushed
out the power welded by the Wends,
he also destroyed Jumne by burning
it to the ground in 1872; hence in
this case the earthquake and flood
business is a mere fabrication. The
Baltic Sea can boast of no sunken
cities, although it has, caused con-
siderable destruction to life and prop
erty by floods. A few of the more
important instances are: ID The
great flood of November i, 1904,
which submerged the whole of the
strip of land which connected the
present island of Ruben with Rugen;
(2) the flood of November Is, 1872,
which rent the islands of Usedom
and Hiddensee into two parts; while
CD the food which took place on
April 19, 1903, destroyed the we'll
known and beautiful Adlerhorst re-
sort on Arizona.
But to turn to other parts of the
world. Here there are not many
known instances of sunken cities;
still there are a few. The latest
known case is that of Galveston,
which, as will be remembered, was
destroyed and partly engulfed on
September 8, 1901.
Many towns have also disappeared,
due to land slides, avalanches, ETC.,
which have hurled them into lakes,
and inland seas. Local legends say
that huge devil-fish live in these
lakes, and it is their movements
which cause the towns to slip down
and hurl their contents into the
depths, where the monster can then
glut his NAV on mangled flesh and
blood Of course most of these re-
ports are mere tales, but there are
two recorded cases of inland towns
being engulfed beneath the waters
of adjacent lakes. The first of these
is afforded by the disaster to the
town of Zug, Switzerland population
4400) which was swallowed up in
the lake of the same name on July
5, 1887.
To conclude, we will mention the
disaster which befell the small ham
let of Tiefengruben about thirty
years ago. This was a pretty little
village, situated near Kranichfeld in
Thuringia, Germany; in the centre
there was a small innocent-looking
pond, upon which the good people
used to keep their ducks and other
water-loving fowl. One stormy day,
why and wherefore heaven only
knows, the village went down, and it's
place was taken by large lake,
which still marks the site Of the ill
fated village. The benighted peasant
returning home after hard days
work telling timber in the forest sur
rounding Kranichfeld, often sees I'M
canny-looking lights fitting about
over the marshy ground, and mutters
a prayer for the rest of the troubled
spirits Who-he thinks-are hunting
for their lost home. Friends Of the
writer have often seen these lights,
which owe their origin to decaying
vegetation. In fact, they are merely
ignited marsh gases or, as they are
popularity termed, will o the wisps. -
Advices of recent date contain some
very interesting data as to what, it
may be said, is nothing more nor less
than a submerged city in the making.
About six months ago, following upon
a sudden and unexpected shock, a
considerable portion of the pretty
little town of TavernoIa fell into
Lake Isco formed by the waters of
the Oglio, between Brescia and Ber-
gamo) upon the shores of which it
stands. In the night of the 18th of
a further shock ensued,
and whole square and several of the
,,c,,, y ;,,iDo. e+roo+e of Tovorpo1o e1id