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The Washington Post from Washington, District of Columbia • Page 1

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Washington, District of Columbia
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1
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

i A i 11 zr ij it fn ri i pjii i a jr tj tj iLr Yivm wi jarr vr 5f pfsi3r4tt vjsse zgr wt i SS6r35SF Vt7T a V5 as MAGAZINE SECTION I Ss life MtiitM lust ih jr im i I I I I I 1 tl ft 5J TX Vi Oi T5i5i Jf Itheateioal ANN 0 0 I i 3 is A Tt 4f wSi eience Recent Discovery of the Lpfiy Antarctic Continent Suggests That a Central Section ofithe Earth Sagged nij I jl NoEjajiiiiis the Mf eidr 5 rTrPDtrccirpv madtu Dnr 5 1 A 1 tiiivii iiiiivviviii rijii j5 jt i IWWmmWMMwMiiMiM illIBB IDffllilWBWsSMa riFffsiirTrijfiMfrtfSffjfffffmiftnij ni iiwi in Mjmimm bbiiii khiumi nidi ut hr unman nniv mw iininivivt aw wiBM iimmk mmmmmamm viMmmmmKmmmmm rannni nfln mwmvs mmMK JVHHHBIIHIiH BIHHMHBWIX frirrx iiiimi ri MJiw MO0IIBKBHHffiRBSSSHMllm i fCHW mmanLwmmmmHkm Mmvmmmizttr jf vflBRgtiiK iPirk rz 11 i minim nil i iiiwiii vy i i fc 7 i vM iiiiWMWMBTOtgaaaWB IIUIII vs zs rLJUAiiiir iiffm irnmmTBBTiiihiir wff liin TiiM tt nTrn mr nri 1 HfllH flllMHVIUTAilUUllJ 1 WUn 1 VIIV KU4I il mJ liiiniittKZrffflKiii 3 3il 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Association for 1 uresent zonal rllstrihutlon of temoerature the Advancement of Science a BY PROP GAItHETT SCRYISS tJIUNG the recent meeting of A significant remark was made by the president of the botanical section which suggests a new theory of the cause and oiigin of Noahs flood The remark which had no Intentional eonneQtion with the theory referred to was simply to the effect that the presentpresent distribution of oiganisms on the earth Beems to bej best interpreted by the assumption of north polar origin Thf theory assumes that hitherto a great mistaKe has been made In sup posing that the deluge mentioned In the Bible occurred in any of the now inhabited parts of the earth or within the period of reporded history The Biblical story and 4ts predecessor the Babylonian story of a geat flood overwhelming mankind are assumed to represent a tradition which Jhas dimly floated in human memory fo innumerable generations concerning a catastrophe that occurred when mankind occupied a part of the globe from jtvhich they have since been excluded by natural conditions Strange Basin at North Pole One thej greatest surprises resulting from the ATctic explorations of Nansen was the fact which he first fully established that the site of the pole and most of the space within the Arctic circle are occupied by deep oceanic basin At the same time te lands now existing around the shores of the Arctic Ocean exhibit unmistakable indications of having been ai some lormer epocn we aooae or an Abundant animal and vegetable life whose relicSj are now all buried in Jhe earth On this natter we have so good an authority as Prof Charles Abbot di I rector of tre Smithsonian Obseryatoijv who says There ar certain circumstances of geology whtcli may indicate a diminished radiation of the sun in ancient times Although paims used to flourish in the Arctic zones it does not appear that the tropics werej then much hotter If any than now Hanson Insists this unT if the sun were then as now the princi pal source of heat and its effects then as now zgnally distributed Earliest Life at the Poles On tlie other hand there is accumu lating evidence that glaciation has oc curred more than once over great regions of the tropics and most notably In the permo carboniferous period In that re mote period far antedating the so called glacial or pleistocene period of com paratively recent times glaciation pre vailed in Australia southern Africa Hindustan and perhaps in other tropical regions ye may suppose that the full main tenance of ordinary temperatures re quired formerly as It does bow the co operation of the blanketing effect of the water vapor of the earths atmosphere and that in addition to this the earths internal sources of heat were then of some appreciable Importance in main taining its surface temperature The ear lier the period we consider the greater we may suppose the contribution of the earths own heat and the less the requirement of the sun But we may assume that all three factors solar radiation ter restrial conduction and the blanketing effect of the earths atmosphere were re quired to maintain genial emperatures in the permian period No Evidence of Universal Flood The gist of the theory under consideration is that once there was a continent where now the Arctic Ocean rolls and that this mysterious polar continent was the earliest home of man from which he was driven by climatic changes culminating tn a linking of the land and a great invasion of the sea The memory of this catastrophe persisting in the form of varjing legends among all the descendants of the men who witnessed it gave rise to the traditions of a universal deluge which are found scattered through the folk lore of all parts of the northern hemispheres Let us now see in a little more detail ll i nm riir rn MUtfJtggggSlEffUffiv3gB MMlIAWaHBMHHHHBMHH Mil i rrifTfn fri wtt TfffiB nr rrTrYr immWTiYTmn iTtmrTnfWiwmBSSSHSSSS Noansrlood Elevuticin at South Pole Be likveid to Have Caused Depression at florth Pole Into Which Poured the Ocean ci rica aiid America Gigantic tidal waves tremendous earthquakes a sud den climatic ehahee and other convul I i i 1 1J1 1J AAtABn leastheBlnklhe of a continent i ic St Zl 73 4 4 i Jf hiaam sEowinfir how the ijrtatlaxle or the earth rniffht have tmnffh from the North to the South Pole arid forerd but the veciiliar isolated i rirt rii TT and very mgn conunent aw moouvn rote ana caruea we aepreseion ine North Pole Such a movement would haveeauwd a rushincr in of the waters of the sea and produced phenomena similar to the description of the Flood given in the Book or oenesis This mav have happened at the period in tne vrorlds historr when xreolo gists have amply proved that tropical animals and tropical Tegetation andt climate exisiea at iae xiona roxo a perzoa aunng wmen ue portions 01 we earth around tne equator were covered witn ujow uto indications of such calamitous occurraices are discoverabje ItTs tuethat4hLlateslce age may have7 come tn the daTys of primitive rnaW butthatJls otherwise explainable whiretheresuli a qudjlen eipanslon of the ocfaniearea would not be to in creasettlie coldvbuttraher tomake the climate mjpre jntld Tfiedlfflcnlty woufdbe avoided If the location of the mysterious Atlantis were supposed to be not In the center of theAtlatttlcr directly off thecoasts of EuTope Africa and Amerlca but in tfie reraote northernpartrof tfeat ocean withfe the arctic circle In that location aSvastsub8idence of land could hve happened without affecting sert ously the ahoresof themlddle Atlantic sWhat Could Have Occurred But what could cause tso great a change in thelevel of so considerable I a part of the planets surface If the areanow occupied by the deep Arctic Ocean was onca dry land there must have occurred hen it sank a depres sion of many thousand feet extended over milllonsof square miles No ordi nary giving7 way of underlying strata could account for so vast a phenomenon and we might beaf loss to of ferany explanation Tvhatever but for recent discoveries concerning the interior condition of the earth Among these discoveries one of the strongest ls that the TcenteTjpf gravity of theglobea ls not fixed but undergoes changes of place In consequence of these changesr the cause of which re mains unknown theearths axis of rotation wabbles a little1 Theglobe revolves like an Imperfectly balanced billiard Jsall orgolf oall The changes though quite rapid are very small but yet large enouglf to have effects discover able and measurable by astronomical observatIonA -Shifting of Earths Center of Gravity rTIow this discovery suggests apos slble ciuse forSthesinkingof an ancient arctic contlpent land delige ovef wrtieimingHhe hunian faipflywhlchhacl jts beginping at the nortb ppje How this may be will appear when It Is stated that Prof KImura the Japrf nese discoverer of the shifting of the earths center of gravity finds that It moves up and down that is to say north and south along the line of the axis At present the motion Is of the slightest but there may have been a time when It was very considerable The central corfr of thejearth Is tb densest part of the globe It has been thought that It may be composed almost entirely of heavy metallic substances Tnostly Iron Slight vibratory motions or this dense core would produce a corresponding shift of the center of gravity The present shif ting according to KImura takes place In a north and south direction and onthe sup position that the rnotion was formerly far greater than It Is today the vibration that remains may be compared to the slight swinging ofa pendulum that has been suddenly stopped Answering Unanswerable Questions A weakness of the theory Is that it offers no explanation to account for the shif fmg of the earths central mass along the line of the axis But it mar be pointed out that the same dlrflcultjr applies to the known variation In the location of the center of gravity Aa attempt which does not appear satisfactory has been made to explain the latter as due to annual alternations in the amount of snow and Ice accumulated around the poles But the real cause remains hidden i On the other hand the theory If accepted would offer a solution of several puzzling questions In the first place ItTvould explain the curious fact that one pole of the earth is depressed deep below sea level while the opposite pole Js elevatedso high as to make the Antarctic the loftiest in mean elevation of all the continents It would also throw light upon the origin of the innumerable traditions found scattered throughout ancient literature which seem to indicate that mankind had its flrst home around the north pole and was driven southward by some fundamental change affecting Its surroundings And finally it would explain the universal prevalence of floodTlegends alike In the Eastern am Tv7estefn worlds and the absence of any marks of such disaster in trosel parts of the earth that have been occupied byrnan since recorded history began jrJ by what argumentsthls theory jnay be supported Greek philosopher Plato The Atlantis stqry which camadown to Platos time The great difficulty which science has Ifrom a dim antiquity avers that there found In accepting the Bible account jof was formerly a continent in the Atlantic Noahs deluge even as ah exaggerated Ocean which was submerged with all its legend of an actual occurrenceslies in the inhabitants who had attained a wonder fact that ho parts of the earth which are fuUdegree of civilization and were the known to have been Inhabited by man greatest peopleon earth It was the be witbln the period covered bythejnost an lief of Plato that the lost continent oc clent history or pre history present any cupled the Renter of the ocean between indication of having been swept by a uni Europe or Africaand America although versa flood covering even the mountain i or course ne Knew nothing or America tops like that described in the Hebrew history Nothing Is gained by pushlngback the date of Ipe deluge some thousands or tens of thousands of years because geol This belief has been thought to ha justified by recent deep sea explorations which have11 disclosed irregularities oriHhe bottom of the Atlantic that might oncehave been the surface of ogy shows that no entire continents in the the sunken continent There seem to now habitable portions of the globe be mountain Chains and valleys there have been submerged since the earliest and the peaks of the Azores the Can date that can be ascribed to the appear arles and the Cape de Verde Islands ance of man There have been small havibeen regarded as possibly pro and very slow subsidences and eleva tlons but nothing in the natifre ofraf universal flood or any sudden all wljelming catastrophe Explanation of Atlantis Legends Yet the Bible narrative finds a curious support not only in the Babylonian records but in the famous legend of the Intruding parts of the missing Atlantis Ho Sign of Violent Reaction But here a great difficulty arises If Atlantis really did sink at the place assigned within so recent a period as that covered by the history of man there musthave been a Violent reaction jin the earths crust and this would lost Atlantis which fascinated thevgreat have left Its marks upon Europe Af Dore3Tstrrking conception of the deluge showing the men and animals fleeing from the ziatioSi TKfcitetfceArJr of i Noah floats in the distance biblestoryorihe deluge GehesisChapters6and 7 12 AndGod looked upon the earth and lehold it teas corrupt for all fleshfhad corrupted his way upon the earth is And God saiduntoNoah The end of all flesh Js me before Ie for the earthHs filled with viqlence through themjmdt lehold I toil destroy them wit the eartK Jj MdkethTcfolphrwoodfuroolns shalt Ihou make in theark and JshalL pitch it within and without with pitch 17 And oeholdj IevendorJbring a flood of paters upon the earthy toAestroy all fleshrwhereln isthetbreath of Iieirom under heaven and every thing thatjs in theeartti shalVdieyi IS But with thee will establish My covenant and4hou8halt come into the ark thou and thy sons and thy wifeandjhy sons wives with thee tf i 19 And of every living tying of all flesh two of every sort Shalt thou bring into the arlcrtcflceep thcmilive with theejJJtey sjiati lemale and female -20 Of fowls aftertheir kind andof cattle after4heir kind ot every creeping Jhing of the earth after his kindftwo vf every sort hall come 5 it untothee to keep them alive 2L Andjakejhou unto thee ofallJoodthatls eaten and thou sTioIti SrZ i gather it to thee and it shall be for food for thee and forihem Ri jF S5 ftk JL tv JndJheJloodwas tortydaysup6nthe earth and the tcdtersHn creased and bare up the ark and itwas lifted up above iherearth J8 And the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the hearth and the ark went upon the face of thewaterstjs J9 Andthewaters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and tall a 5 the highMlls that were under the wholejieaven were covered fc f5 ri Hj 4 i ttBBBHBBSBHBBBaSKSSslBKk Miiiiy iav rvaBiiiMaaBBiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiBsMaiii yj 2gSffS83FayKgra 3si iTJftBiiESBHMniniSeBHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiBBlsHB Mlnr jMHIIIIBiillBHH tfzTz mHF JHiimmmmmmBMHMB i ff if iMrf tifflfiilw1 I i i i i ii 1 1 I fey mMJMmSKBmSKw tsS lcjpMMB3 M1fm fliilM i tmz wk XZtZf fe Sk A ms i immfssAUxliL stf vteiXnHtM fi si mBHmmmmBbiiL rf Tp irM iWBTmfirMi wMl i now tne huge mammoth whose remains weretonnd in tne irozen flortn in tjioena was prooaoiy enguiiea in tne on It tbno jsfctw 5K 2 flV rSr 3r How1 the huge mammoth whose remains were1 found in the frozen North in Siberia was probably engulf ed in the on sr ta.

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Pages Available:
342,491
Years Available:
1877-1928