sland, and that his posterity dwelt there
for a period of nine thousand years in the midst of fertility and
abundance. But, not content with their ample possessions and prolific
soil, they went over to Africa and Europe, and even penetrated into
Asia, bent on conquest.

Passing from this mixture of probable truth and undoubted fable, Plato
then asserts that the island of Atlantis finally sank and disappeared.
This may or may not be true, but there is more reason for our crediting
the statement than many people would suppose. Certain it is that no
such island exists at the present time, but it is believed by some that
the Azores, which are volcanic in their formation, are the summits of
the mountain ranges of the Atlantis of the ancients.

But the best evidence we have of the possible existence of such an
island is the fact that in modern times an island has been _seen_ to
rise out of the sea, and, after a time, to disappear, under the
influence of volcanic action.

This remarkable event is related by Captain Tillard, an officer of the
British Navy, who saw it on the 12th of June 1811, when approaching the
island of St. Michael. On this occasion smoke was seen to rise from the
surface of the sea, and, soon after, showers of cinders to burst forth.
We cannot do better than give the captain's own words, as follows:

"Imagine an immense body of smoke rising from the sea, the surface of
which was marked by the silvery rippling of the waves. In a quiescent
state it had the appearance of a circular cloud revolving on the water,
like a horizontal wheel, in various and irregular involutions, expanding
itself gradually on the lee side; when, suddenly, a column of the
blackest cinders, ashes, and stones, would shoot up in the form of a
spire, at an angle of from ten to twenty degrees from a perpendicular
line, the angle of inclination being universally to windward. This was
rapidly succeeded by a second, third, and fourth shower, each acquiring
greater velocity, and overtopping the other, till they had attained an
altitude as much above the level of our eye as the sea was below it.

"As the impetus with which the several columns were severally propelled
diminished, and their ascending motion had nearly ceased, they broke
into various branches resembling a group of pines. These again formed
themselves into festoons of white feathery smoke, in the most fanciful
manner imaginable, intermixed with the finest particles of fal