The only other witnesses to the visual existence of the island, so
far as recorded, were James Hall (probably by honest mistake) in 1606
and Thomas Shepherd (gravely distrusted) in 1671.[292] Nevertheless
an impressive insular figure grew up in the maps, bearing the name
“Buss” to commemorate the vessel that first found it. In some instances
it was made a very large island indeed. Shepherd’s map, reproduced
herewith (Fig. 24), was accompanied by a brief descriptive narrative
which may be attributed to a fancy for yarning, with no strong curb of
conscience on the fancy. Buss remained an accepted figure of geography
for considerably more than a century.
Quite naturally, however, the efforts of reliable searchers failed
to find this island again, for it was not really there. A theory of
cataclysm seemed more acceptable than to discard outright what so
many maps, books, and traditions had attested. Van Keulen’s chart of
1745[293] led the way with the inscription “The submerged land of Buss
is nowadays nothing but surf a quarter of a mile long with rough sea.
Most likely it was originally the great island of Frisland.” So the
name “Sunken Land of Buss” passed into general use with geographic
sanction. After much disturbance of mariners’ and cartographers’ minds
not only the phantom island but its legacy, the supposed line of
breakers and dangers, vanished altogether from the records. There is
no “Buss” to be found on maps after about the middle of the nineteenth
century, though the preceding hundred years had been prolific in them.
Probably we must suppose a later date for the cessation of current
mention of the sunken land of that name, in recognition of what,
according to belief, once had been but existed (above water) no longer.
Indeed, even after the opening of this twentieth century the same
hypothesis has revived,[294] with scientific support of a submarine
range in 53° N. and 35° W., really ocean-bottom mountains 8,000 feet
high between Ireland and Newfoundland, reported upon in 1903 by Captain
de Carteret of the cable ship _Minia_. They are not on the same spot
and would still require a great lift to reach the surface. Of course
their past sinking is not impossible, but there is no need to explain
Buss by cataclysm any more than Mayda or Brazil Island, Drogio or
Icaria.
ISLANDS OF DEMONS
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