and the descent of the royal family from Atlas, son of Poseidon, and a nymph of the island, is set forth. In the midst of a council upon Olympus, where Zeus, in true epic style, was revealing to the gods his designs concerning the approaching war, the dialogue breaks off. [Illustration: TRACES OF ATLANTIS. Section of a map given in _Briefe über Amerika aus dem Italienischen des Hn. Grafen Carlo Carli übersetzt, Dritter Theil_ (Gera, 1785), where it is called an “Auszug aus denen Karten welche der Pariser Akademie der Wissenschaften (1737, 1752) von dem Herrn von Buache übergeben worden sind.”] [Illustration: ATLANTIS INSULA The annexed cut is an extract from Sanson’s map of America, showing views respecting the new world as constituting the Island of Atlantis. It is called: _Atlantis insula à Nicolao Sanson, antiquitati restituta; nunc demum majori forma delineata, et in decem regna juxta decem Neptuni filios distributa. Præterea insulæ, nostræq. continentis regiones quibus imperavere Atlantici reges; aut quas armis tentavere, ex conatibus geographicis Gulielmi Sanson, Nicolai filii_ (Amstelodami apud Petrum Mortier). Uricoechea in the _Mapoteca Colombiana_ puts this map under 1600, and speaks of a second edition in 1688, which must be an error. Nicholas Sanson was born in 1600, his son William died in 1703. Beside the undated Amsterdam print quoted above, Harvard College Library possesses a copy in which the words _Novus orbis potius Altera continent sive_ are prefixed to the title, while the date MDCLXVIIII is inserted after _filii_. This copy was published by Le S. Robert at Paris in 1741.] [Illustration: CARTE CONJECTURALE DE L’ATLANTIDE. From a map in Bory de St. Vincent’s _Essais sur les isles Fortunées_, Paris [1803]. A map in Anastasius Kircher’s _Mundus Subterraneus_ (Amsterdam, 1678), i. 82, shows Atlantis as a large island midway between the pillars of Hercules and America.] [Illustration: CONTOUR CHART OF THE BOTTOM OF THE ATLANTIC. Sketched from the colored map of the United States Hydrographic office, as given in Alexander Agassiz’s _Three Cruises of the Blake_ (Cambridge, 1888), vol. i. The outline of the continents is shown by an unbroken line. The 500 fathom shore line is a broken one (—— —— —— ——). The 2,000 fathom shore line is made by a dash and dot (——.——.——.——). The large areas in mid-ocean enclosed by this line, have this or lesser depths. Of the small areas marked by this line, the depth of 2,000 fathoms or less is within these areas in all cases except as respects the small areas on the latitude of Newfoundland, where the larger areas of 2,000 fathoms’ depth border on the small areas of greater depth. Depths varying from 1,500 to 1,000 fathoms are shown by horizontal lines; from 1,000 to 500 by perpendicular lines; and the crossed lines show the shallowest spots in mid-ocean of 500 fathoms or less. The areas of greatest depth (over 3,500 fathoms) are marked with crosses.]