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Show A LOST ISLAM). It Mysteriously Disappears Bo-noath Bo-noath tho Sefj. Vessels Now Sailing Over tho Spot Where a ltody of Land Thirteen Mllea LoiiK Formerly Ex-. Isted. The disappearance lieueath the soa of an island, long marked on the maps and well known to mariners, is a vcrv rare occurrence. Such an event is reported re-ported from tlie northwest coast of Australia in a region where no white enterprises are carried on and which is rarely visited "by ships. A German sailing master reports the discovery of the mysterious disappearance of Expedition Expe-dition island. The first news was printed in the Deutsche Knndsehan. and it lias been reproduced in the geographical journals of Europe. No one knows when he island vanished from view-, and the only explanation of the phenomenon apparent to the Iew York Sun is that for some cause or other there has been a sudden dep sion of the earth's crust in those waters. The subsidence of the island w as not accomplished with such rapidity rapid-ity and violence as to attract attention, through the disturbance of the sea on any civilized coasts. If a sudden cataclysm cata-clysm had occurred, like that which blew the greater part of Krakatoa into the air aud scattered the fragments over the sea bed, great waves would have carried to far distant shores the news that something unusual had occurred, oc-curred, for Expedition island had some importance in that region of tiny ocean specks, being much larger than any of its neighbors. It was thirteen miles long and on an average one mile wide. The ticrman vessel sailed back and forth over the sea that has risen above the island, linding an average depth of forty-eight feet. In all the soundings the plummet undoubtedly struck what had once been the surface of the flat, low-lying island. The surrounding sea is some hundreds of feet deep, and the landward end of the island was forty miles from Australia, a little north of the indenture known as Collier bay. It is known that the southern coast of Australia is gradually rising, while the northwestern, northern and eastern coasts, with a wide expanse of the adjacent ad-jacent sea floors, comprise a great area of subsidence. In other words, the earth's crust in these regions is very gradually sinking. Expedition island w-as in the extreme southwestern part of this area of subsidence. We are accustomed now and then to the spectacle of a new island suddenly appearing above the surface of the sea, and we are not surprised wheu these islands, reared tipon unstable foundations founda-tions by submarine volcanoes, show a tendency, like New Iiogaslov and Falcon Fal-con island, rapidly to disintegrate and disappear again beneath the -waves; but it is very rare indeed that an island of considerable dimensions and supposed stability leaves these upper regions, and it is rarer still that it drops peacefully peace-fully out of view without letting the world know, in some way or other, that it is taking its departure. |