CHAPTER XI.
THE PROBABILITIES THAT AMERICA WAS PEOPLED FROM THE OLD WORLD, CONSIDERED GEOGRAPHICALLY AND PHYSICALLY.
Legends of Atlantis—Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Theory—The Subject Examined Scientifically—Retzius’ View—Le Plongeon’s Observations—Identity of European and American Plant Types—Revelations of the Dolphin and Challenger Expeditions—The Atlantic Floor—Challenger and Dolphin Ridges—Challenger Plateau probably once Dry Land—Identity of European and South American Fauna—Elevation and Depression of Coast Level of Greenland, United States, and South America—Gulf Stream—Equatorial Current—The Trade-Winds—Accidental Discovery of Brazil—America Probably Reached by Ancient Navigators—The Caras—Atolls of the Pacific Ocean—A Pacific Continent—Contiguity of the Continents at the North—Aleutian Islands—Kuro-Suvo—Behring’s Straits—Inviting Appearance of the American Shore—Remoteness of the Migration—Prof. Grote’s View—Prof. Asa Gray’s Observations—Conditions Favorable to a Migration—John H. Becker’s Observations.
WE have observed that traditional and linguistic evidence seems to point to a trans-Atlantic origin for some of the American peoples. In a preceding chapter (iii), we quoted the story of the Platonic Atlantis, as recorded in the Critias, and alluded to the advocacy by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg of the hypothesis that the submerged continent of Egyptian tradition was a reality. In support of this view, the Abbé has cited the opinions of geologists and the remarkable traditions preserved by the Central Americans, the Mexicans, and the Haytians, concerning the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which submerged beneath the ocean a continent, of which the Antilles are but its mountain summits. Attach as little importance as we may to these ancient legends, which no doubt refer to some extraordinary cataclysm, the memory of which was preserved for ages by periodic feasts and religious celebrations,[756] in which the gods were besought by princes and people for security against a similar calamity, still our minds naturally associate them with the story of the Platonic Atlantis.[757]
Until recently the mere expression of belief in the former existence of an Atlantic continent has been the signal for criticism, and has called forth the smile of pity, if not of contempt. Such, however, is no longer true, since scientific investigation, consisting chiefly in deep-sea soundings and the study of the fauna and flora of the opposite shores of the Atlantic, call for the respectful attention of all who are interested in the ancient history of this continent. Prominent among the men of science who have expressed confidence in this hypothesis is Prof. Andres Retzius of Stockholm, who was convinced from a study of comparative craniology, that the primitive dolichocephalic skulls of America, especially of the ancient Caribs of the Antilles, were nearly related to the Guanches of the Canary Islands.[758]
Dr. Le Plongeon observed that the sandals upon the feet of the statue of Chaacmol, discovered at Chichen-Itza, and of the statue of a priestess found on the island of Mugeres, “are exact representations of those found on the feet of the Guanches, the early inhabitants of the Canary Islands, whose mummies are yet occasionally met with in the caves of Teneriffe and the other isles of the group.”[759] The great number of American plant-types in the Miocene flora of Switzerland, led Prof. Unger to espouse the view that a continent formerly existed in the present Atlantic ocean.[760] Professor Heer, the celebrated botanist of Zurich, for the same reasons promulgated this hypothesis, and in his Flora Tertiaria Helvetiæ, defines the location of the continent, which he believes to have been as wide as Europe.[761] In opposition to this view, it is urged by Professors Oliver and Asa Gray, that the flora of America and Europe are united by means of a former overland communication at Behring’s Straits.[762] The conformation of the ocean-bed is the next matter of importance in examining the subject. The deep-sea soundings taken for the submarine cable between Newfoundland and Ireland, led to the impression that the Atlantic floor was comparatively a level, forming but one great trough between the continents. The United States exploring ship Dolphin, however, subsequently dispelled this illusion, by revealing the fact that a great submarine plateau or mountain chain which has been denominated the “Dolphin Rise,” divided the North Atlantic into two longitudinal troughs running north and south. This is described as a seal-shaped ridge with its tail joining a connecting ridge at the south in 15° North Lat. and 45° West Long., while its body widens as it runs towards the north, reaching its maximum width under the forty-fifth parallel, and finally tapering to a narrow isthmus at 52° North Lat. and 30° West Long., which connects the ridge with the great northern submarine table-land.[763]
This work was prosecuted further by the German frigate Gazelle, and by H. M. ships Lightning and Porcupine, with confirmatory results.[764] The most thorough and satisfactory work of this character, however, was performed during the cruise of H. M. ship Challenger, from December 30, 1872, until May 24, 1876, inclusive. Sir C. Wyville Thomson, the director of the expedition, in his excellent work, The Atlantic, has contributed much exact information relative to the contour of the sea-bed. The frontispiece to his second volume is a chart illustrative of the relative depths of different localities in the Atlantic ocean. Almost its entire length from north to south, the great chain whose loftiest summits tower above the sea in the Azores Islands, St. Paul’s Rocks, Ascension and St. Helena Islands, is indicated by a white irregular belt representing a depth of one thousand fathoms, but shading off into the blue, indicative of the depths on either hand. Professor Thomson says, “Combining our own observations with reliable data which have been previously or subsequently acquired, we find the mean depth of the Atlantic is a little over 2000 fathoms. An elevated ridge rising to an average height of about 1900 fathoms below the surface, traverses the basin of the North and South Atlantic, in a meridional direction from Cape Farewell, probably as far south, at least, as Gough Island, following roughly the outlines of the coasts of the old and new worlds. A branch of this elevation strikes off to the south-westward, about the parallel of 10° North, and connects it with the coast of South America at Cape Orange; and another branch across the eastern trough, joining the continent of Africa, probably about the parallel of 25° South.”[765]
The width of the great land ridge as well as its relation to the North Atlantic islands is indicated in the following: “One of the most remarkable differences between the Azores and Bermuda is, that while Bermuda springs up an isolated peak from a great depth, the Azores seem to be simply the highest points of a great plateau-like elevation, which extends for upwards of a thousand miles from west to east, and appears to be continuous with a belt of shallow water stretching to Iceland in the north and connected probably with the ‘Dolphin Rise’ to the southward, a plateau which in fact divides the North Atlantic longitudinally into two great valleys, an eastern and a western.”[766] A member of the Challenger staff, in a lecture delivered in London soon after the termination of the expedition, expressed the fullest confidence that the great submarine plateau is the remains of the “lost Atlantis,” citing as proof the fact that the inequalities, the mountains and valleys of its surface, could never have been produced in accordance with any laws for the deposition of sediment nor by submarine elevation, but, on the contrary, must have been carved by agencies acting above the water level.[767] The volcanic character of the Azores and Philippines, together with the prevalence of volcanic deposits found upon the entire ridge by the officers of the Challenger, lend probability to the Egyptian and American legends of a tremendous catastrophe in which a continent was submerged beneath the waves.[768]
Sir C. Wyville Thomson found that the fauna of the coast of Brazil brought up in his dredging machine, were similar to that of the western coast of South Europe.[769] This is of particular interest, since at a short distance north of the Amazon an arm of the central ridge connects the sunken plateau with the coast of South America. Mr. J. Starke Gardner, the eminent English geologist, is of the opinion that in the Eocene period a great extension of land existed to the west of Cornwall. The extraordinary mingling of American, Asiatic, Australian and African genera in all European floras of the Tertiary period leads him to the conviction that at a remote time they were all connected. Referring to the locations of the Dolphin and Challenger ridges, he asserts that a great tract of land formerly existed where the sea now is, and that Cornwall, the Scilly and Channel islands, Ireland and Brittany are the remains of its highest summits.[770] The question at once arises, “What ground have we for believing that the great Atlantic ridges ever occupied a higher altitude than at present?” The answer is found in the comparison of facts with the following theory set forth by Prof. Joseph Le Conte: “Any increase in the height and extent of the whole amount of land on the globe must be attended with a corresponding depression of the sea-bottoms, and therefore an actual subsidence of the sea-level everywhere. Hence if it be true, as is generally believed, that the continents have been, on the whole, increasing in extent and in height, in the course of geological history, then it is true also that the seas have been subsiding, and that therefore the relative changes are the sum of the two.”[771] It cannot be denied that the processes of elevation and depression are now actively going on along the eastern coast of both the Americas. The coast of Greenland is sinking along a distance of 600 miles so markedly that ancient buildings on low rock-islands are now submerged, and the Greenlander has learned by experience never to build near the water’s edge.[772] The subsidence along our Atlantic seaboard is slowly going on, being most marked on the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, while on the other hand the elevation of the eastern coast of South America has been accomplished by the hidden forces, volcanic or otherwise, on a stupendous scale. “Raised beaches” have been traced 1180 miles down the eastern shore and 2075 miles along the western, ranging from 100 to 1300 feet above the sea, and Alexander Agassiz has recently identified them at a height of 3000 feet above the present sea-level by means of corals found adhering to the rocks.[773] In view of these facts, so familiar to any student of geology, it is not difficult to conceive of the former existence of Atlantis where the Dolphin and Challenger locate the mid-Atlantic ridge, described as 1000 miles in width in the latitude of the Azores. Supposing the existence of an Atlantic continent in the Tertiary period conceded, we have no means at present of determining the approximate time of its subsidence, unless we associate it with the dim and uncertain legends of the Egyptian priests and the ancient Americans. Whether the Atlantidæ who threatened to overthrow the earliest Greek and Egyptian states, but who were swallowed up by the sea in the engulfment of their island continent, were the inhabitants of the Dolphin and Challenger ridges and the colonists of Eastern America, must for the present at least remain in doubt, though strong probabilities point to the conclusion that they were.[774]