The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 4, 1896, Page 24

24 / THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1896. "THE YEAR 1901 What Has Happened Once Will Occur Again—The - Lawol Cotles Five Years From Next December the Sun and the Planets Will Bear About the Same Relation to the Earth as in the Year of the Great Deluge The ancient Chaldean astronomer, Be- rosus, wrote twenty-two centuries ago of the deluge and recited the positions of the sun and major planets at the time of the cataclysm. Almost a similar position of these planets will occar in December, 1901, and many people are of the opinion that some great cataclysm will then oc- cur. What may we reasonably expect? All human knowledge rests on human experience. If it be proven that certain terrestrial phenomena have occurred when certain ultra-terrestrial conditions have ob- tained it requires no argument to induce the belief that when similar conditions again 1ake place similar results may be expected. No more, no less. Science, if it deserves its name, must be absolutely true and unbiased. The pedantry that disre- gards natural pbenomena is not science. The dictionary defines “cycle” as a “umiformly returning occurrence of the same event.” Just now, for some reason (that may form the subject of future discussion), the popular mind is much interested in cyc ic phenomena, and anything that offers ever so slight a clew to the elucidation of the mysterious working is eagerly acceptea. Probably ninety-nine out of every hun- dred human beings of average intelligence have an inbora conviction that, what has once hajpened will most likely happen again. Asked why such idess are enter- tained, the reply is, “I don’t know.” But, all the same, the conviction is present. Indefinite, vague, unexplainable, but— existing. The “cycle’” is the expression of eter- nity. *‘Without beginning or ending.” Modern science is, emphatically, mate- rialistic. It takes cogn:zance only of wha pertains to the material universe and what is susceptible of measurement by weight and volume. The laws it recognizes apply only to matter, and it confines its re- sewrches to the determination of material causes, so that every effect is measured as the result of a purely physical cause. For convenience we divide science into many branches, each pertaining to some one specially, as ‘“‘astronomical science,” the “science of chemistry,” ete. Natu- rally, there is a tendency due to such division, to narrow the limits of research, and consequently confine conclusions, with the result that out of 10,000 specialist investigators there arises but one philoso- pher. The astronomer is, perhaps, the one most inchined to search for the key to cyclic phenomena. He witnesses the evidence of cyclic law in all his investiga- tions. The simplest illustration of the cycle is found in the motion of the earth in her revolution around the sun. 8 iect any point in the orbit of the earth, and at the expiration of & period of time embrac- ing 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 47.6 seconds the earth will have completed one revolution around the sun along the path of her orbit, and will occupy a like position in regard to the sun that shed.d at the beginning of the elapsed time above mentioned. In the computation of time nse is made of what are known as “cycles.’”” The Dominical cycle is for the purpose of de- termining the day of the week correspond- ing to any given date. Irisfound that at theend of & term of 400 years ihe same order of Dominical letters and days of the week will return. A cycle of the sun.de- termines the order of the Dominicai let- ters applying to the days of the month and lasts during a period of twenty-eight years, when the same order returns. The lunar cycle determines the times of occur- rence of the new moon and has the period of nineteen years, at the expiration of which begins another period of similar length, the duplicate of its predecessors. Asironomy deciares that almost every heavenly body is governed by cyclic law. The motions of the planets, their satel- lites, the so-called fixed stars (there are no fixed stars; every star that, for want of a better expression, is cailed a “fixed star,” is, in fact, swiftly speeding through space at a rate of motion calculated in some instances to be a million miles an hour, yet so distant from us that, though a thousand years were expended in watch- ing, 1t would be impossiole in that period of time to detect any change in its posi- tion), and also the motions of some comets, are in cycles that have been deter- mined by us. Because we have been unable to measure the orbit of each comet is no reason that we should say that any is exempt from cyclic law. The vastness of the orbit may exceed our finite comprehension, yet it is an orbit. Coming closer to home we observe many manifestations of cyclic power. In mat- ters of disexse and health the physician is well aware of ‘the force of cyclic law. Fevers are distinguished by the periodic- ity of their recurrence. Some physiclo- gists declare that every seven years our material bodies are renewed. That is, the process of eliminating effete animal matter and the supplyingof its place with new is gradually and constantly gouing on, 8o that at the end of the period of seven years our physical organism contains nothing that formed it seven years pre- viously. It would be strange if with such forcible evidence b-fore us, our brains were unten- anted with the belief that past occur- rences would be reduplicated. It will not do to relegate such imaginings to the land-of myths and say such thoughts are nonsensical. Education and culture have not, nor will they ever, expurge such thoughts. The greater application the studen: bestows upon the phenomena of nature the more pronounced appears the truth of the cyclic law. The aevelopment of intelligence but whets the appetite for knowledge. The more we know the more we want to know, and there is growing to-day an intense desire to learn what cycles are determin able, what particular occurrences mark the epochs and the probable times of the happenings. In other words, there is a strong tendency to break away from the strict materialism of science, as science is interpreted, to leap, so to speak, irom the rock of exact science and take a header in the inviting surf rolling in from the sea of speculation. Science itself is not to blame for this condition. - But some of its exponents are, In ministering to greed, the application of practical science has occupied their time and attention to the exclusion of wuat is pure science, which seems, in too many insiances, not only to be ignored, but forgotten. The eyclic law is the “law of unrest.” Everywhere the arrangement of matter is varying. The movements among differ- ent portions, be the masses graat or small, are constantly changing both in direction and rate. Look upon the sky at night- time. Hither and thither suns and satel- lites are rushing with motions varying ac- cording to the attractive forces of other suns and other sateilites encountered by each orb at various portions of 1ts course. Alike in those vast bodies of cosmical dust; alike in the fantastic folds of those enigmatical, vaporous masses of stellar space, and in ail that sense is cognizant of, is found the evidence of uurest. Trace downward in the order of size from these mighty masses of the sky, through all the intermediate shapes and forms of matter, until is reached the smallest atom within the range of conceivable vision. Among all, in all, ruling all, in general and in de- tail, permeating the universe, there is an unceasing redistribution of matter and un- ceasing chan e of motion. Birth and death are ever side by side. The action is cyeclic. From the utmost limits of the undefina- ble space come particles of matter, arawn toward a common center by the unknown power, They coalesce to form a mass, the motion of each particle diminishing with the formation of the ag.regation. Inte- gration compensating the dissipation of motion. Ro were the stars born. Outward, toward unending limits rush other particles, departing from some ag- gregation undergoing disruption, in obedience to some unknown force. Disin- te_ration metamorphosing into motion. So die the stars. F.om out, beyond, come particles of maiter, imponderable, 1mmeasurable by the most delicate mechanical appliance, but nevertheless matter. . For inconceiva- ble lengths of time the process of gathering goes on, the converging streams at last forming what vision recognizes as a dimly outlined, almost impalpable mist. Men come and go, the history of one race and a.e becomes ancient, molders and is for- gotten. Milions upon millions of years succeed each other, and :the beginning lapses into the unknown; and then some eye viewsa dusty cloud where the mist was. The timepiece of eternity marks the passing of the seconds of creation’s hours with steady swing of pendulum, whose mighty sweep is all too ponderous for human recognition. The dusty fog has coudensed into & nebulous mass. Thus onward with steady growth, so gradual that finite sense is too short-lived, and human history too brief to record a change, the aggregation advances to its coherence. At some period of such a for- mation our eyes may rest upon the then stage of growth and view the faint, misty cloud or the nebulous crust, or the splendor of the blazing sun. Every orb shining with inherent light was thus born. : This process of integration goes on until a certain point is reached. It must not be supposed, however, that the cul- mination may be recognized by our feebie comprehension of time, but there is a time when the motion of ageregation attains 1ts highest development—that instant when the power of aggregation is exactly balanced by the power of segregation. Thenceforward disintegration takes place. In obedience 1o the same law of unrest, the cyclic law that sped each particie toward 2 common center, the aggregated mass was in motion from the instant of its conception. Each arriving particle transferred its direct motion to the gen- eral aggregution, all these direct motions, arriving from all conceivable directions, compounding to form a rotary motion of the mass thus aggregated. Coexistent with such rotary motion is the tendency to disrupt. With the in- crease of density of the mass the speed of rotation increases and with it the power of disruption grows until a condition is reached where centrifugal force is stronger than the cohesive quaifties of the mass, when from the spinning mass are thrown off particies of matter, whose tendency to depart further is arrested by the attractive force of the central mass at the distance where the energy of expulsion becomes expended and where the rotary force of disintegration is balanced by the direct force of integration. (I say “‘particle”; [ do not mean that large masses are thus thrown off.) Henceforward each particle essumes an orbital motion, the many particies forming a zone or ring, encir- cling and revolving around the parent mass. Gradually the articles forming the zone coalesce and in time a mass is formed which retains the orbital motion. This expulsion, or throwing.off of perticles, goes on until the reduction in size of the parent mass gradually reduces the velocity of rotation, and thus weakens and finally ends its destructive tendencies. With loss of revolutionary motion comes loss of heat and consequent failing power of co- hesion. Not speedily, as measured by finite cognizance of time, but yet surely and steadily, with imperceptible grada- tion each ciant of the universe fades and dissolves back into the imponderability whence it came. Such is the birth, Y:unh is the death of every stellar system! ‘With the inception of birth is compassed the beginning of death. The effect of motion upon matter is the expression of cyclic law. It may be thusly formulated: Matter proceeding along a right line (i. e., direct line) is creative, Matter departing from aright line (i. e., curved, rotary, circular) is deetructive. To descend, =0 to speak, to phenomena near to us—the events transpiring upon our own globe and within the scope of our own experience—the same cycling law of unrest, of urceasing change, is manifest. In the developmentof civilization is ob- served the formation of colonies by indi- viduals coming from all portions of the older countries to people the new; the groups thus formed at the port of departure coaiescing apon the new continent. We have thus a segregation of matter as resuiting from direct motion as regards the old nation; and, an aggregation of matter dissipating motion as regards the new nation. There is with all this yet another illustration of ths universal cyclie Jaw. In addition to change of direction there is also change of form. Inevery change from an inherent to a coberent siate—i e., from a more or less scattered condition of matter to a mass forming a simple aggregate, the different portions of aggregating matter cause varieties of con- dition in the mass formed. No absolutely uniform process of aggregation hasever been or ever can take place. The varie- tes beginning at the inception of the aggregation become more and more marked as the procese progresses, the less heterogeneous 1s transformed into the pore heterogeneous., Homogzeneity bas no _.ace in the universe. The word is a synonym for annihilation. In life, as we know it, definite varieties take their origin in minnte differences of conditions and surroundings. In each of the various races, animal and vegetable, the various genera become distinct. Never were seen two human beings alike in all particulars. Never were seen two trees, one the duplicate of the other. Never were seen two leaves exactly alike. In the formation of nations from the va- rious races of men the characteristics distinguishing the one nation from the other grow with the nation, and we recox- nize the nationality of the individnal with greater or less readiuess of perception as the nation producing him is old or new. Again, in the nation itself arise class dis- tinctions that become more prominent as time progresses; each class becomes sub- divided into minor classes, each char- acteristically differing one from the other, and extending to the family group between the individual members of which are marked distinctiohs, The tend-ncies of all the subdivisions and multiplications of diversities is toward equilibriam of the forces of which all parts of an aggregation are exposed, and the forces which these paris oppose to them. such equilibrium is attained, growth ends and decay begins. Be it star or natfon, it is the same. It isthe tendency of a!l that is to, at some time, reach uniformity as the result of the subdivision and aistribu- tion of energy. Itis the law. Such uni- formity is what we call death. Yet after death come processes of renewed life, dif- feriny from the former life—but actual life. The cycle has no end. The mighty systems of space, aggrezated from the invisible atoms, must in the course of time equilibrate their energies with their surroundings, thenceforward yieldine to the process of disintegration, the beginning and the ending of the sys- tem compassing periods of time immeas- urable by finite comprehension. Yet of such mighty masses thus disintegrating, no particle of matter but what. when Iibe- rated from the aggregation by dissolution, speeds swiftly in direct line to aid the ‘or- mation of some new aggregation. The great cyclic law, the rhvthm of ‘‘death from life, from death to li e,”’ was, isand ever will be. In the stellar orb, in the tiniest atom, in the nation, in the indi- vidual; the same cosmical law, the law of the cycle exists, governing all. What that is which, itself unchanging, eternally produces change is beyond the ken of human science—it is not for finite comprehension. It is the unknown power transcen..ing all human knowledge or con- ception. It is illimitable—without meas- When the moment arrives that ure or compass. Neither has it beginning nor ending. Itisthe cyclic law. It is apparent that all the phenomena 9{ life is obedient to the operation of eyclic law. Yet how few people recognize such fact. To the great majority the mention of the word *cycle” calls up a host of speculative fears. It is by the ignorant associated with the foreshadow of coming calamity, and is by them believed to be “a cause orizinating outside of the enrth"prm ducing effects in and upon the earth. 3 There can always be found some -grains of trutn in the popular rumor. General beliefs do not rest altogether upon faise- hood, no matter how fantastic tuey may be. The sunspots that mark the face of the sun increase and diminish in numbers and size with periodical regularity, cover- ing # period of eleven years. Magnetic disturbances always occur upon the globe with greater force at the time of the maxima of san spots. The giant planets, Jupiterand Saturn, reach certain positions with regard to the earth in periods of twelve and twenty-e:ght years, and so far back as the records extend it is shown that earthquakes occur more frequently at the times when these great planets attain such positions The stream of meteors which the earth passes through every November is ricier in one portion than in anotherand the revolution of the meteoric ring brings the richer portion in the earth’s pathway every thirty-three years. F. M. CrosE, D.Sc. 77 In Mariposa the age of the long tom, rocker, sluice, pick, pan and shovel bas passed away forever. The easily won gold from the beds, bars and banks cf the streams and guliches bas petered out, and the more serious work of attacking the parent sources from which that gold came is now the order of the day. Quartz mines are being opened up in every direc- tion, and with the systematic work that is necessary in gold quartz mining has arisen the demand for cheap motive power. A few days ago the Mariposa Electric Power Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of California. Its capital stock is $1.000,000, divided into 100,000 shares of $10 esch. The president of the company is Captain A. H. War of the Pinon Blanco mine, near Coulterville; vice-president, Charles T. Lindner, elec- trical engineer; and the treasurer and sec- retary is George L. Ecker. The other di- rectors are Wallace B. Taylor and Harold C. Ward of the Nevade Metallurgical ‘Works, S8an ¥rancisco. In addition to its capital stock the com- pany is making an issue of bonds to the amount of about $500,000 for construction, and operations are now in progress, = 2 227 - 77— i 0 i \ "‘bl‘\'s;/l"{ ) The objects of the company are to gen- erate electric power by the waters of the Merced River and to sell it out to mine- owners and others. The power plant is to be constructed at Benton Mills bridge, where the new road from Bear Valley to Mariposa crosses the Merced River. The situation is central and convenient and the power supply will be easily avaiiable for a large number of operative mines. It would be easy to make a list of thirty or forty mines within a radius of ten miles from the new power-house which are all at present heavily handicapped by the ex- cessive cost of fuel for steamn purposes and to which the advent of cheap electrical power will be almost as important as doubling the value of the ore upon which they are working. In Mariposa steam costs at the present time about §$12 to $15 per horsepower per month. The Mariposa Electric Power Company intimates its willingness to supply con- sumers at the rate of $5 per hersepower per month., Take a small mine, using 100 borsepower a month and costing, say, $12 per porsepower, or $1200 a month for steam power. The new company will fur- nish the same for $500 a month, a saving T k‘\%‘&\'\ & N / < v 0 7 i | | of $700, or over $8000 a year, in itself a comfortable dividend on a mine that is not over-capitalized. In addition, there is the saving in many other ways. There are no fires to be monkeyed with in shut- ting down or getting up steam. T.ere are no firemen’s wages, and at small ex- pense the interior workings of a mine can | be lighted as well as the streets of San Francisco ought to be lit after dark. The power by which the Mariposa Elec- tric Power Company’s plant at Benton Mills will be operated is the water of the Merced River, taken from a point about eight miles higher up, and known as the Broadbhead o!d dam. Here the Merced River Canyon narrows in and forms a sort of natural dam. Thence the water will be taken by ditch and flume eight miles to the power-house. It is estimated that at the dryest seasons there is at least 10,000 miners’ inches of water available, and the fall is a clear 225 feet. This is sufficient to generate 6000 horsepower in the dryest time of the year, while at other times, when the snow-waters from the upper Sierras are in the river, there is no limit to the capacity. The location of the Mariposa Electric Power Company’s operations is HUTRRLD Matiposa’s Harness for the Mystic Power SRR N ,,SI\\ | \ \\ N N W h N D /\' i fi [ ¥ CAMP MARIPOSA AT BROADHEAD'S OLD DAM ON THE MARIPOSA RIVER. The figure in the center foreground is Civil Eneineer G. F. Allardt, while behind him to the left is Civil Engineer W. G. Luckhard. Drawn from a photograph taken for THE CALL. just alongside the northern border of the Mariposa grant. The surveys and preliminary plans have. been made by Civil Engineer G. F. Allardt, assisted by W. G. Luckhardt, C. E. The report of these gentiemen is entirelv satisfactory, and bids for the con- struction of the power-honse and plant will be called forin a few days. In the meantime, work is in progress on the ditch and flume. Captain A. H. Ward is now in New York arranging matters in connec- tion with the company that require atten- tion there, but will return to San Francisco in ten days’ time. The promoters of the Mariposa Esectric Power Company claim that their power when comvpleted will be the second larzest in the United States. That, however, does not cut much figure, but this solid fact remains, just so soon as they turn on the power and stretch a network of wires around their vicinity there are very many valuable gold mines, that have been shut down for a generation, which will start up into life aain, yielding treasure to some and work for blood ana sinew to others. Mariposa is not dead; she is sleeping. R. W. Wirsoxn. The romantic interest in all tales of the submerged continent, Atlantis,is as creat to-day asit ever was, and, curiously enough, what was once regarded as pure romance is now, in many quarters, recarded as historical truth. Many have thonght that Plato’s tales of Atlantis were fiction or at least legendary. But now the tide has turued and civilization itseli seems to be turning back for light to the old masters, and many things the western world used to think it had grown past are now com- ing back as truths. Inwiew of all this it is interesting to recount some of the proofs that are now offéred . in support of the belief that Poseidon was a reality and that once a wonderfully developed race of human beings inhabited an enormous continent in tne Atlantic Occan, long since submerged. Ignatius Donnelly devotes much time and care to the presentation of testimony he has gathered respeciing the location of the frazment, if not the whole continent Atlantis. First is the testumony of the sea, based upon the soundings of the United States ship Dolphin, the German frigate Gazelle and the British ships Hydra, Porcupine and Challenger, which have mapped out the bottom of the At- lantic Ocean, showing a great elevation, reaching from a point on the coast of the British Islands southerly to the coast of South America, at Cape Orange, thence southeasterly to the coast of Africaand thence southerly to Tristan d’Acunha. The various deluges are then taken up and the civilization of the Oid and New worlds contrasted, together with the com- plexion of the races. Evidence of Ameri- can intercourse with Europe and Atlaniis, traces of Atlantis in Genesis, the origin of the alphabet in Atlantis, artificiai de- formation of the skull, the pyramids, the cross and other structures the product of the Atlantean, all are dwelt upon and handled in a masterly manner, and all proving Atlantis as the center from which they radiated. Colonies from Aclantis entered Central America and Mexico, the Mississippi Valley, Egypt. Peru, Africa -and Ireland, along the bunks of the Ama- zon and the Aryan settlements. Many if not all of our great inventions were de- veloped in Atlantis, and we are merely rediscovering. A Mighty Nation That Sank in Mlid-Ocean Before the Deluge Mr. Donnelly writes: If our knowledge of Atlantis was more thorough it would no doubt appear that in. every instance wherein the people of E?mpe accord with the psopie of America they'were both in accord with the peopie of Atiantis. It will be seen in every case where Plato gives us information in.this respect as to Atlantis we find this agreement to exist. It existed in architecture, sculpture, navigation, engrav- ing, writing, an estsblished priesthood, the | mode of worship, agriculiure, and the con- struction of rcads and canals; and it is rea- sonable to suppose that the same gorrespond- ence extended down to all the minor detalls. Professor Huxley said in 1880: There is nothing, so far as I am aware, in the blologieal ‘or geological evidence at present accessible to render untenable the hypothesis that an area of the mid-Atlantic or Pacific seabed as big as Europe shouid have been up- lifted as high as Mount Blanc and bave sub- sided acain, any time since the palmzoic epoch, if there were any grounds for enter- taining it Donnelly writes: We are but beginning to understand the past; one hundred years ago the world knew nothing of Pompeli and Hercuianeum; noth- g of the lingual tie that bind: together tne Indo-European nations; nothing of the s'g- mficance of the vast volumes of inscriptions on the tombs and temples of Egyp:; nothing of the meaning of the arrow-beaded inscrip- tions of Babylon; nothing of the marvelous civilizations revealed in the remains of Yuca- tan, Mexico und Peru, Weare on the thresh- old. Scientific investigation is sdvancing with giant sirides. Who shall say that one hundred years from now the great museums of the world may not be aderned with gems, statues, arms and implements from Ailantis, while the libraries of the world shall contain translations of the inscriptions, throwing new light ou all the past history of the human race, and all the great problems which no perplex the thinkers of to-day. 3 . TUntil very recent years modern science made no distinction between Lemuria and Atlantis, but since the appearance of Donnelly’s book there1s a disposition to be more accurate. An empire which reached from the Andes to Hindostan, if not to China, must have been magnificent, indeed, and the more we learn of this mighty drowned nation the more is our pridein nineteenth century achievement wounded. Portions of Atlantis lie but a few hun- dred fathoms beneath the Atlantic Ocean; “and if expeditions have been sent out from time to time in the past to resurrect from the depths of the sea sunken treasure-ships with a few thousand doub- loons Hidden in their cabins, why should not an attempt be made to reach the buried wonders of Atlantis? A single engraved tablet dredged from Plato’s island would be worth more to sciance, would more strike the imagination of mankind, than ali the gold of Peru, all the monuments of Egypt and all the terra- cotta fragments from the great libraries of Chaldea.” It is millions of years since Atlantis first rose from the sea, but it is only 11,000 years since the island, opposite the mouth of the Mediterranean, of which Homer sang and Plato taught, was drowned. Ancient classical literature is full of reference to this great country. Its posi- tion and its magnitude were committed to the keering of prose-writing, while the deeds and misdeeds of the ra‘es have been preserved in verse. Herodotus recorde ! the facisof Atlantis; Pliny wrote of it; even Plutarch refers to it, and there are many other so-called profane writers who have helped to keep its memory green. Even the night of the dark ages was not sufficient to dim its Iuster. But above all other writers, outside of tne wisdom-religion records of the East, Plato stands out conspicuously as the fountain head, the source of information concern- ing the continent and its mighty people. But even Platc has left us but a fragment. His story stops abrantly, over which fact the whole literary world has mourned from the time of the wise Greek to the present day. Plato attributes his knowl- edze of Atlantis to the Egyptian priests of Bais, who communicated the facts to Solon, a relative of Plato, and from Sclon, the great law-giver, the knowledge de- scended to the sage Plato. There is reason to believe, however, that this was simply 4 device resorted to by Plato to screen his own knowledge and wisdom, as it was dangerous to give out too much in his time, except under cloak of fable, aliegory or allegea tradition. It seems, too, that Plato purposely confounded tne island, or the lsst so-called remnant of Atlantis, with the great continent itself, Plato was a student or pupil of the wise Egyptians, who doubtless obtained their knowlrdge by direct ‘succession from the Atlanteans, whose descendants they were, and “bad not Diocletian burned the esoteric works of the Egyptians in 29, together wi h their books on alchemy; Cesar 700,000 rolls at' Alexandria, Leo Isaarus 300,000 at Constantinople, and the Mohammedans all they could lay their sacrilegious hands upon,” the world might know more to-day of Atlantis than it does. The whole East firmly believes in the existence and high civilization of the At- lanteans. which civilization was much greater than that of the Egyptians. Itis the degenerate descendants of these A~ lanteans who built the first jyram dsin the country. Concerning the pyramids, it is stated that *‘there are subterrancan passages and winding retreats, w. ich men skillful in ancient mysteries, by means of which they divined the coming of a flood, constructed in diff rent places lest t_he memory of all their sacred ceremonies should be lost.” These men who divined the coming of the floods were not Egyp- tians, who never had ary floods, except the periodical rising of the Nile, They were rather the. last remnants of the Atlan- teans—those race« w ich science s begin- ning to believe lived and breathed bef re the so-called historic period. Charles Gould, the well-known geologist, says: “Can we suppose that we have at all ex- hausted the great museum of nature? Have- we, in fact, penetrated yet beyond iisante | chambers? Does the written history of man, | comprising a few thousind years, embrace the whole course of nis intelligent existence? Or have we inthe long mythical era, extending over hundreds of thousands of yearsand re- corded on the chronologies of Chaldes and of Chine, shadowy mementos of prehistoric man, handed down by tradition and perhaps trans- poried by a few survivors to existing !ands | from others, which 1 ke the fabled (?) Atlantis of Plato, may have been s1bmerged, or the scene of some joint catastrophe, which de- siroyed them ali with their civilization? Modern research and effort have gone far to demonstrate the truth of Plato’s statements, and many are the scientific writers who have added something to & c earer undersianding of Atlan:is; yet there are sc me who are skeptical or luke- warm concerning the facts. But if one will take the time to carefully go over the facts and mass of proofs presented by Mr. Donnelly in his book entitled ““Atlantis: The Antediluvian World,” he can scarcely remain in doubt about the existence or riseand fall of Atlantis. In the present sketch one can do little more than point out the most important facts as gleaned from various sources concerning the an- cient world that now lies buried beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Those who are in- terested in the small Atlantic island, its divisions intoland and water, the places, the temples, the statues of gold, the foun- tains, and springs, and baths, should read Plato’s descripticn: The military and naval establishments, the race courses and docks, the zardensand streets all come in for a share in the de- scription. The whole country was stated to be *very loity and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the countryimme- diately about and surrounding the city was a level plane, itself surrounded by mountain chains. * * * And the place was smooth and level and of oblong shape, lying north and south, 3000 stadia in one direction and 2000 in tie other. * * * They surrounded the plain by an enor- mous canal or dike, 101 feet deep, 606 feat broad and 1250 miles in length.”” In other places Plato gives the entire size of the island of Poseidonis as about the same as that assigned above to the plain around the city alone. It seems then that one statement refers to the great continent and the other to the small remnant—Plato’s island. The standing army of Atlantis is given as upward of 1,000.000 men; its navy as 1200 ships and 240,000 men. Such state- ments are not applicable to a small island state of about the size of Ireland. Con- cerning the people, he says: For many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws. They possessed true and in every way great spirits, practicing gentleness and wisdom. They despised everything but virtue, and thinking lightly on the possession of gold and other property, they were not intoxicated by luxury nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control. * * * But when the divine nature began to fade and became diluted with too much of the mortal mixture, they being unable to bear their fortunes, be- came unseemly, losing their fairest and most precious gifts. Then & most honorable race becoming wretched, retribution follo' The early Atlanteans, we are toid, were, like the Lemurians, from whom they de- scended, giants, but smaller than the early, third race, Cyclops. It 1s probable that the Atlanteans were early twenty-seven feet high and eight feet across the shoulders, but they gradually diminished in size. The term “Atlantean” must not mislead the reader to regard them as one race only or even & nation. It is as though one said «“Asiatics.” Many, multityped and various were the Atlanteans, who represented several humanities and aimost a countless number of races and nations, more varied, indeed, than would be the Europeans were their name to be given indiscriminately to the five now ex- isting parts of the world. There were brown, red, yellow, white and black Atlanteans, giants and dwarfs (as some African tribes are even now). It is from the Atlanteans that tbe early Aryans got their knowledge of ‘‘the bundle of wonderful things” menticned in the Mahabharata. It isfrom them that they learned aeronauties (the knowledge of flying in air vebicles), and therefore their great arts of meteorography and me- teorology. Itisfrom them that they in- herited their most valuable science of the hidden existence of yprecious and other stones; of chemistry, or rather alchemy, of mineralogy, geology, physics and as- tronomy. It is stated that the Atianteans learned the secret and hidden laws of nature, and ‘the more evil among them used or mis- used their knowledge for base purposes. Itiseven claimed that they had obtained the keys to some of the most arcane laws of magnetism and electricity, to which the X ray is as chila’s play. They may even have known of that most mysterions force called “‘vril” by Bulwer. In fact, their knowledge had risen to such a height that they were virtually gods, until some of them, by prostituting their powers to unworthy ends, became sorcerers and demons. Then comes the record of wars, bloodshed and ruin, cule minating in a great catasirophe, and the sinking of the countinent, the elect of the nations seekine other lands, It is of this cataclysm, the submersion of the great continent of Atlantis, that the old records say that “the ends of the earth got loose,” and upon this catastrophe have been based the legends and allegories of Vaivasvota and Noah. Tradition, taking into no account the differences between sidereal and geoiogical phenomena, calls botn, indifferently, ‘*deluges.” Yet there is, in truth, 2 great difference. Subter- ranean convulsions destroyed Lemuria, but the end of Atlantis was brought about by disturbances or shifting of the earth’s axis of rotation. It began during the earliest tertiary periods, and, continuing for long ages, carried away successively the last vestige of Atlantis, with the exception perhaps of Ceylon and a small portion of what is now Africa. It changed the face of the globe, and no memory of its flourishing conti- nents and isles, of its civilizations and sciences, remained in the annalsof history, save in the sacred records of the East. It was several millions of years ago that the main continent of Atlantis jerished, that is during the miocene p riod, but it was 850,000 years ago that its famous | islands ot Ruta and Daitya were destroyea, probably during the later piiocene times, while a more enduring fracment, Plato’s island, or Poseidon, did not sink until about 11,000 vears avo. The growth 0. the nails on the left hand requires eizht or ten days more than those on the right. The growth is more rapid in children than in adults, and goes on faster in summer than in winter. It re. quires an average of 132 days for the re- newal of the nails in cold weather, and but 116 in warm weather, / )