Evidence that this elevation was once dry land is found in 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." (Scientific
American, July 28th, 1877.)

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. Referring to the location 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." (Popular
Science Review, July, 1878.)

Here, then, we have the backbone of the ancient continent which once
occupied the whole of the Atlantic Ocean, and from whose washings Europe
and America were constructed; the deepest parts of the ocean, 3500
fathoms deep, represent those portions which sunk first, to wit, the
plains to the east and west of the central mountain range; some of the
loftiest peaks of this range--the Azores, St. Paul's, Ascension, Tristan
d'Acunba--are still above the ocean level; while the great body of
Atlantis lies a few hundred fathoms beneath the sea. In these
"connecting ridges" we see the pathway which once extended between the
New World and the Old, and by means of which the plants and animals of
one continent travelled to the other; and by the same avenues black men
found their way, as we will show hereafter, from Africa to America, and
red men from America to Africa.

And, as I have shown, the same great law which gradually depressed the