The daily Alaskan., 1907-05-08
THE DOOM OF VENICE
IT MAY BE TO LIE IN THE BOSOM OF
 THE .ADRlATlC,

A0AA on NEG-+A Q AeEaA-s Aa+-@r
 of Old Port ROyaI-ThO sunkeu
 Cities of the World.
 It Is believed by many that Venice Is sinking into the AdrlatIc and that she gradually will disappear beneath the waters of the great lagoon from which her palace crowned islands arise. Other cities have gone that way before her, and BhlDs now sail over spots which were once teeming with a populOus life.
 At the entrance to the harbOr of King stOn, Jamaica, the original city of Port Royal lies Tothoms deep beneath the blue and sunlit waters of the Carlh' bean sea. \ marrow strip of land, on which are a small settlement and a fort. Is all that Is left of what was once the richest and wIckedest town ID the West Indies. It was the resort or pirates. who rested there from their deDredatlOns and made the city hid eous with their revelry. But these pi- rates brought great stores of their loot to the city, and it's commerce grew and fourlshed. Palaces and churches were built, a pirate often striving by rich endowment of a church to square his accounts with heaven.
 Throughout the greater part of the seventeenth century no town In the western world was so magnificent as to It's buildings or so luxurious as to Its habits as Port Royal Then one day in 1892 the anger of the Lord shook the Island of Jamaica, and the greater part of Port Royal sank beneath the sea, carrying with 1t hundreds Of It's In habltants. Towers, churches, palaces and forts went down, many of them not tumbling ln ruins by the shock but sinking bodily beneath the waves.
 On a bright day, sailing over the spot where Port Royal once stood, one can look far down through the clear water and see the remains of the city still standing there ou the ocean bot tom. with fishes swimming about among its towers and great tropical seaweeds waving from its sunken walls.
 The negroes Of Jamaica-and some white people, toO-wlll tell you that be fore a storm the sunken bell of the great cathedral which went down with the city on that awful day in 1892 can be heard distinctly tolling below the waves, ruug as Q warning by the ghostly hands of the spirits of depart ed buccaneers which haunt the subma- rlne city. People who do not believe In ghosts. but think they have heard the toIIlng of the bell, say the explanation Is that when the city sunk the great bell of the cathedral was not thrown from its place, but still hangs as 1t originally did The coming storm be- fore 1t reaches Jamaica stirs up the waters of the Caribbean and sends 10 upon the shore deep waves, which roll through the sunken city and set the bell a-tOlling.
 Another suuken city Of renOwn is Balae, that splendid resort on the Ital. Ian coast where Nero and Caligula 'reyeled and drank deep" A strag- gling village and heaps of marble ruins still stand upon the shore and bear the name of Baiae, but the greater part of the city lies beneath the waters of the Mediterranean, and tourists from Ma pies go out there to gaze down into the waters and try to catch a glimpse of the submerged city.
 The resort of all the wealthy nObles Of Rome when Rome was mistress Of the world, Baiae was marvel of lux urious splendor Palace after palace was built on the shore, and architects designed magnificent structures eE- tending out Into the sea.
 When Rome decayed and the Goths ravaged Italy, Baiae was sacked by the invaders. Soon after the city be- gun to sink. First the buildings which had their foundation In the water sub sided beneath the waves. and then the sea made an attack on the land. Gradually the shore line reCeded, and the Mediterranean flowed through the streets where Hadrlan had driven his Imperial chariot and Horace had walk ed thinking of his next poem.
 These promOntorles, crowned with grand towers and gorgeous palaces, were undermined and tOppled into the deep until at last the major part of the splendid city was submerged. Its disappearance was not sudden, Ike that of Port Royal, and due to some convulsIon Of nature, but Baine went down to Its death gradually, as Venice Is said to be going.
 In Holland the subsistence Of the land has brought 1t about that many towns once pOpulOus are now covered by the sea. The old Roman camp al Brittenburg, after sinking beneath the waves, emerged again ln 1920, only to disappear, and Its remains now lie iD deep water opposite the town of Kat wiik. The original Katwijk itself now Is beneath the waters, as also are the original towns of Scheveningen, Dom. burg and Egmond. In fact, a success sion of towns bearing these names IS .,.-7- ,F +ba haFF0T7, of fhn EaA for they