Atlantis

Sprawling like a high-humped lizard on the bed of the Atlantic Ocean is a mighty ridge, its lazy length (about 50 degrees N. lat. to 40 degrees S. lat.) following the S-shaped outlines of the continents on either side. A sheer 9,000 feet of height, it towers in the way of deep sea fishes scurrying from Pernambuco to Benguel. Its knobby head rises curiously above the waters in the north (Azores plateau); St. Paul, Ascension Island, and Tristan da Cunha mark its southern peaks.

Long before the days of scientific dredging, Plato and his friends sat at the baths discussing an ancient and powerful kingdom, an ideal commonwealth which had sunk into the sea: Atlantis. Others took up the tale; medieval writers made much of it; Brazilian legends still stimulate searching parties. The bank itself has been thoroughly mapped by H. M. S. Challenger (1873-76), the German ship Gazelle (1874-76), the French ship Travailleur (1880), the U. S. ship Blake (1877), the expedition of H. S. H. Prince of Monaco, the German Validivia expedition, etc.

The black-painted sailing schooner Atlantis is now on the high seas headed toward this buried land. At the helm is Columbus O'Donnell Iselin 2nd, 24-year-old oceanographer, Harvard graduate and romanticist, son of the late Lewis Iselin. Last year, in his 76-foot fishing schooner The Chance, he dredged, collected specimens along the Labrador coast, as he had previously done along the Gulf Stream, Bermudas, Atlantic Coast.

Oceanographer Iselin knows what he wants. He wants to see, touch, examine the Globigerina ooze of the ocean bottom, the volcanic debris of the ridge top. To this end he has designed special apparatus: an enormous dredge with bulldog teeth which, lowered to the bottom will take greedy bites of the ocean floor; three miles of cable to take it down and bring it up again.

The drag net for evidence of the sunken continent will be spread for the most part around the Azores, because in addition to the myths of the past, a recent U. S. Navy surveying expedition brought back bathymetric maps of a submerged plateau with terraced shores in this vicinity.

Another object is the finding of evidence which will throw light on the theory that the Americas were once joined to Europe and Africa. Similar flora & fauna found in widely separated areas and on intervening islands give support to the theory. The massive dredge biting its way across the ocean floor may add geologic evidence about earth changes.

Accompanying Oceanographer Iselin is Terence Jerome Keogh, son of Justice Martin Jerome Keogh and assistant to young Mr. Iselin in designing ship and apparatus.

The Chance, heroine of Oceanographer Iselin's earlier expeditions is preparing to start next month on an "around the world cruise." Five recent graduates of Yale will collect flora & fauna during an 18-month trip. They are Edward Dodd Jr. (son of the President of Dodd, Mead & Co.) who will write a book on his return; Alexander Brown and G. Clymer Brooke of Ardmore, Pa.; Thomas Marshall of Philadelphia; Joseph Roby of Rochester. The vessel will be commanded by Lieutenant Alexander Gray, U. S. N., retired.