The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-12
ON THE BOTTOM OF THE DEEP BLUE SEA Strange Tales of Submerged
 Towns and Peoples OLD CENTERS OF LUXURY Inhabitants of German Ocean Shores Have Many Weird stories-some of Them Are Evidently Found
 ed on Fact.
OLD CENTERS OF LUXURY
From the Scientific American.

of the charming resorts dotting the coast line of the German ocean will have been amused (and perchance interested by fhe many tales and legends related as to subr7 .rged cities-all supramundane trace of which has now disappeared. Of such cities which once were famous for their wealth, beauty and power. it is whis- pered that their love of luxury, their greed and cruelty led to the offended and unseen powers above causing the waves to rise in the night and engulf them tor- ever. Not only are such legends rife on the coast. but even in inland German towns many a lake is invested with e halo of similar mystery.
 Of these latter causes two of the most interesting relate to an old-dme city named Buckow, which is said to rest upon the bottom of Lake Schermutzel, ln Brandenburg, while Lake Werbeiiin "a most mysterious sheet of water, accoro- ing to folklore) conceals in it's bosom town of the same name; all that remains of this latter is the name given to a small village, in memory of It's preoeces- sor, which now stands not far from the point where the former town stood
 Leuends Founded on Fact.
 Although most of the stories rife In Germany as to vanished towns in the in- terior have no actual historical basis, or, at best a slight one (the WerDeliln story being based upon the disappearance oi a castle called Werbel1in, one of the As canian castles built in L50-1170 by Albert the Rear. margrave of Brandenburg, and a contemporary of Frederick Barbaros- sa). this is not so on the coast; here the legends are all we'll founded on fact, and in most cases the salient features have lost little of their original ruth III the telling.
 The most striking of all the legends ,-,,rrent in the coast towns of the Ger man Ocean is that dealing with the lost Dutch town of Stavoren at the entrance to the Zuyder Zee. Here there AVeo rich and powerful woman whose prioe, cruelty and selfshneSs aroused the anger of heaven, and caused the wicked ana misguided city to sink beneath the waves A small portion of the city lwhere the good people lived) was saved, ana ils name still cleaves to the small town ol Stavoren, which is well known to every traveller going by water from A1iis.et da. to Lecuwarden and Groningen-
 A Thirteenth Century Calamity.
 It is an indisputable fact that in the thirteenth century Stavoren was a wealthy and powerful commercial city' however, due partly to the port pecom ing choked with sand and partly to lio eruption of the Zuyder Zee in l2fl, IL rap idly lost it's importance and at the pres ant time what is left of it only affords shelter to about 800 soulS- The TOOLS and spires of the now submarine pullo- ings can, 1t Is said, be often seen iar , down in the depths when the sea IS selii and the weather is clear, while silent ns- teners on Christmas eve will hear the distant and muffed tone of church bells arising from the depths. only to break ih bubbles and nipples on the surface or tne Zuyder Zee.
 Visitors to Sylt, the weil-known seaside resort and island in the North Sea, Will doubtless remember the small Village or yyinningstedt. Although its present pop ulation is only 50 persons, it is none the iess commemorative of the large commer- cial town of Winningstedt which went to the bottom of the sea during great flood and storm which took place on Jah- uary 16, 1362
 The German Oceans Great Record.
 yVinningstedt is by no means the only town which once stood on the shores or rrriesland and Holland, only to meet With destruction at the hands tor rather Dii- Iows) of Old Hans, the Fresian faml- iarlv terms the North Sea. AS matter of fact. of all the seas in the world 1t is the German Ocean alone which can estap- fish a record for the number or towns' villages and hamlets which 1t has either destroyed or engulfed
 Since the eleventh century Old Hans has devastated no less than IA towns and villages, either by swallowing them up entirely or else by burying them un- der heaps of sand. The fate of the Dutch town of Rungholt, which disappeared during a great storm in the year 1887, is still sung and told in story by the pres ent-day fisherfolk of Holland
 The Baltic Sea has not such bad rec s,. oofr Q d halo of romance is thrown around the legends told about this sea by the story of the wonderful town of Vineta, chimes from whose church steepes may, at the fa4l of eventide, be heard pealing faintly from the depths of the ocean.
 The Legend of vineta.
 In the '7Vs of the last century articles were still published in support of the sometime existence of large, fabulously wealthy Wendish city named Wneta, which in the middle ages nestled at the foot of the Stakelberg, at Usedom, near ly at the same altitude at which the hamlet of Damrow now stands. The legend states that it was totally destroyed by flood and earthquake which occurred in the year 11S3. At one time the city or Vineta was marked on the Prussian maps, but geological and historical in yestigations made locally by Prof. Vir- chow 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 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 wreath owned by Vineta was to certain extent true as Julin or Jumne was, according to the old historian Adam of Bremen, O very large and remarkably wealthy town fin the tenth century. doing even then a trade with Arabia, Asia, and the coast towns of Northern Africa.
 A Mere Fabrication.
 To use the historians own words, this old Wendish town was certainly the greatest of all towns now existing in Europe When the Danish King Walde- mar the Great crushed out the power yielded by the Wends he also destroyed Jumne by burning it to the ground. in l 1172; hence in this case the earthquake | and hood business is a mere fabrication. The Baltic Sea can boast of no sunken cities, although 1t has caused consideraDie N destruction to life and property by floods IA few of the more important instances 5Sare: First, the great flood of November l. 1894, which submerged the whole of the strip of land which connected the present island of Ruden with Ruegen; second, 1 the flood of November 13. 1872, which rent the islands of Usedom and Hiddensee into two parts; while, third, the flood which