AN eminent astronomer recently declared that all the mysterious places of earth had been penetrated by adventurous man. “There is left,” he said, “no portion of our planet that he has not trod. The star gazer Is now the only true explorer.
Man’s future discoveries must be made with the telescope.”
But there is still a large part of the earth’s crust that is as great and fascinating a mystery as the illimitable reaches of space. Hidden there may lie the cities of a wonderful race, with vaults choked with precious metals and rare Jewels. He who brings them to light will write his name beside those of Marco Polo, Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Livingstone, Peary and all the others who have extended our frontiers of geographical knowledge.
Such a task has Bernard Meeker undertaken. This daring young English man Is now on his way to the Caribbean Sea. There he will search not only for a lost continent, but for a lost nation and all the treasure that it may reveal. He says he has good reason to believe that he will find the very cradle or civilization and loot enough to enrich all those who have joined him In the enterprise.
Meeker’s expedition Is the strangest treasure hunting outfit that ever left England. The chunky little steamer that was chartered at Liverpool carries the queerest cargo in its tramplsh career. First and foremost were two submarines. One was of the conventional type no longer considered wonderful In spite of Its great speed and carrying power. Four men could live comfortably aboard It for weeks. Its lockers are capable of adding a large supply of compressed foods and the system of air renewal is of the most modern type. Its one unusual feature Is Its powerful searchlight that Is set In a revolving turret thus enabling the men In the conning tower to distinguish objects at great depths below the surface.
The second submarine Is such a craft as Capt. Nemo might have been proud to own. It resembles some hideous crustacean of steel with tentacles to catch Its prey. It Is a veritable giant crab. Its claws are ingenious metal arms that can be operated by the men inside the hull. The tips are furnished with a sensitive electrical apparatus that might almost be called a man made sense of touch, for whatever comes into contact with these arms sets off a signal inside the conning tower. Thus can this vessel feel Its way along the bottom of the sea like some huge half blind monster.
And yet Meeker’s Plnot submarine – for it is of that newest French type – Is far from being totally blind. Like its more conventional companion It has a luminous eye capable of lighting up the water to a certain depth. Beyond this depth, however, the most powerful lights are of no avail and Its sensitized feelers are all that will guide It In Its search for treasure.
This unique vessel has a name. Most submarines are nowadays simply numbered, but Meeker named his second submarine, and it was this name that let out the secret of the expedition. For months the explorer kept his plans strictly to himself. All that was known of them was contained In the simple announcement that he would sail for the coast of Yucatan to search for evidence of prehistoric civilization. This aroused little comment, for many others have preceded him In such a quest. In fact, the shores of Yucatan are filled with the remnants of great cities.
But the crablike submarine caused a great deal of speculation. Just what the floor of the ocean had to do with the ancient nations of Mexico was a mystery. But when the Plnot was named Atlantis the secret could no longer be kept. Every explorer and scientist In England at once knew that Meeker was going In search of the so-called Lost Continent Atlantis, whose existence has been a riddle since the days of ancient Greece.
It was only when he knew that he could stave off publicity no longer that Meeker would talk about his plans. And even this concession was obtained only on promise that nothing should be published until after he had sailed.
“When this thing comes out I shall be laughed at from one end of London to the other,” he said. “As a matter of fact I have always had a hard time to get even my intimates to believe my story, We Britons are a pretty conservative lot, even explorers, who of all men should be prepared to believe anything.
“Briefly the object of my expedition Is the exploration of the ocean bottom at points below the surface of the Caribbean, where I have good reason to believe there lie the ruins of cities so old that the most ancient Egyptian structures are new by comparison. These cities once formed the nucleus of a great empire, which for want of a better name we have called Atlantis. Of course this is not an original idea of mine. For a great many centuries men have thought that such a nation
once existed, meeting its fate in some awful cataclysm which caused a whole continent to sink fathoms below the surface of the Atlantic ocean.
“Hitherto the existence of such a nation has been a mere theory based on the flood legends that occur in all religions, the distribution of certain distinct human types and the strange similarity shown In the architecture of ancient Europe, Africa and America. But recently divers have discovered cups, bowls and other utensils at the bottom of the Caribbean, far from shore and of designs that absolutely baffle archaeologists. These specimens are different from anything that any of the known ancient races manufactured. They are delicately wrouht, showing a high degree of artistic taste and knowledge of metal working.”
At this point the Interviewer repeated to Mr. Meeker the rumors that his was a treasure hunting expedition. The explorer was at first reticent.
“Treasure hunters always get themselves laughed at,” he said. It was then that he exacted the promise to delay publication until his departure. “If you will agree,” he said, “I will spin the yarn for you, otherwise not another word do you get out of me.” The promise was made and the explorer went into another room, from which he soon returned with a small metal bowl. He smiled as he handed it to the writer. There was nothing strange in the shape of the vessel, but it gleamed in the lamplight.
“What would you say It was made of?” asked Meeker.
“Brass,” promptly replied the Interviewer.
“Wrong,” said he. “It Is gold.”
He then went on to explain that the bowl and others like it had been brought to the surface by divers in the Caribbean. At first it was thought to be a part of the cargo of a Galleon that had sailed the Spanish Main In the days of the conquistadors. Immediately it became the centre of a war of antiquarians. It was soon known beyond doubt that the vessel was not of European workmanship, either ancient or modern.
Nothing of Oriental or African design tallied with it. As a last resort it was thought to be a Peruvian or Mexican product, but this theory too was exploded. Even the gold of which it was made puzzled metallurgists. It was an alloy, but of a different type from any thing on record.
“Then I became Interested In the argument,” said Meeker. “I found out the exact spot at which the strange find was made. The few men who knew this were keeping it quiet. They had visions of treasure and were then trying to interest capital in an expedition.
“After a deal of bargaining they agreed to take me Into the scheme, I, on my part, promising to aid them if there seemed any possibility of success. I studied all the charts I could find. At last I came upon a drawing made by Ignatius Donnelly, who wrote a book on ‘Atlantis’ years ago. His map showed that the place where the divers found the gold bowls was only a short distance west of what might once have been the shore of the lost continent itself.
“It was a wonderful tale those divers told. The water, they said, was comparatively shoal where the discovery had been made. The floor of the sea seemed to be covered with unusual coral formations. ‘But It was the queerest coral I ever saw,’ one of them told me, ‘It looked more like stone walls than coral, and there was a pointed sort of arch In one of the walls, I’ve seen coral arches, but this was different from any I had ever seen before,'”
Mr. Meeker went on to relate that he and one of the divers had made a preliminary visit to the spot, but all that he would say was that he had seen enough to satisfy him Unit the strange coral was nothing less than the wall of a building pierced by an arch of tho most ancient type.
“Only half a dozen men know where the place Is,” ho said, “and we do not Intend to let any others Into tho secret even if any one else would believe us. Those who have backed us have not done so with any hope of money profit. They hope, as I do, to solve tho mystery of the lost continent. If we succeed In doing that they will be satisfied, but the divers who made tho original discovery are comparatively poor men. They dream that they will find the hoardings of a great city, and after what I nave seen and heard I am not at all sure that they will not to richly rewarded for the great risk they are willing to take. For the work will be dangerous.
“The mythical, If you wish to call it that, continent of Atlantis is supposed to have occupied the central portions of the Atlantic Ocean. Plato wrote of it and he obtained his first information from an Egyptian priest. Investigations have shown that Plato’s writings were based on well defined legends that many of the wisest men of his time believed to be founded on historical facts. The Azores are supposed to be all of Atlantis that now remains above the surface.
“Those who believe that this lost continent was once inhabited base their belief on the strange similarity between the ancient races of Europe, Africa and Mexico. There is also a wealth of architectural evidence. The arch of Las Monjas In Central America is almost an exact counterpart of the arched entrance to the treasure house of Atreus in Mycenae, Greece. It is a strange pointed arch exactly like that which the diver saw at the bottom of the Caribbean.
“Of course this is only one of the many reasons for believing that there once existed a great and populous continent in mid-Atlantic. The Aztecs, Toltecs and other highly civilized Mexican nations, whom the early Spanish conquerors wiped out, had a most significant set of traditions to explain their origin. All seemed to agree that their civilization dated from the arrival of a white stranger from the East.
“One of these stories Is especially fascinating. It described the stranger as a tall man with a long beard the natives themselves were beardless. He wore a long robe with a cross on it and from him the Indians obtained their religion and the arts of metal working and architecture. He taught them a simple and beautiful doctrine of nature worship and preached to them underneath a big tree. Sacrifices of animals were also made. The cross as a religious emblem was well known long before the Christian era. It is found in all parts of the world.
“I could go on for hours telling you hundreds of perfectly logical reasons for believing that the old and new worlds were once linked by a continent and that on this continent civilization was first given to the human race. But I am chiefly interested in that portion of Atlantis which may at one time have occupied a part of the Caribbean Sea, for it is there that all our work will be done.
“Our plans are simple enough. With our first or parent submarine, we will explore tho bottom as far as possible, the Plnot will be used at depths that would be impossible for the other to navigate. From the Plnot divers in especially strengthened suits, capable of withstanding great pressure, will go out whenever the steel arms of tho boat indicate some large solid object in our path.
Powerful lights will be lowered from the surface whenever possible, but at very great depth we will have to depend on tho light mounted in the bow of the Plnot. The divers will not descend into tho sea from tho steamer or a raft, but will go out from beneath tho surface from one of the submarines, from which the air supply will be pumped to them from a series of tanks containing air under pressure, There is an air chamber in tho forward part of both submarines. Here a diver can be closed in and the air pressure gradually increased until it Is high enough to keep out the water. The diver can then open a hatch and step out Into tho sea bottom. He returns to the boat by tho same hatch. As soon as he closes it the air pressure is lowered to normal and he is admitted to the main operating room with the rest of the crow.
“This in itself Is not new. It has been done successfully many times, but the Plnot submarine has brought this feature to a point that makes It as safe as anything of the sort can ever be. Without this arrangement we could not hope to carry on our explorations. An addition to the sensitive arms of the Plnot possesses a small crane capable of moving heavy objects. “Certain parts of the sea bottom are so deeply covered with ooze that our investigations will be rendered doubly difficult. It will be almost impossible to excavate whatever ruins or other objects this deposit covers, but where the depth is not too great a suction hose can be lowered from the steamer. This we hope will clear the water for a considerable space, and before the surrounding ooze refills the space we hope to be able to get at least a fleeting glimpse of whatever may lie there.
“I cannot speak too highly of the arrangements that have been made for lighting the water at great depths. In the first place there is a power plant on board the steamer. This will furnish current for the lights that will be lowered from the vessel itself and for charging the storage batteries of both submarines. Our subaqueous light consists of a powerful Tungsten lamp in a strong steel shell, at the bottom of which is a prismatic lens that will intensify the rays like those that shine out from a lighthouse. The wire that carries the current will reach the light through a strong tube of rubber covered with a protective steel coat like chain mail. The divers’ air tubes will I similarly protected, as the waters in which we will operate are infested with sharks.”
“How much gold do you think ye will find?” the Interviewer asked.
“Don’t ask me, my boy,” laughed the explorer. “There may be a million pounds worth awaiting us and yet we may not get a guinea of it to the surface, but we will make an effort.”