A REGION OF MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15249, 12 March 1913, Page 11

A REGION OF MYSTERY.

Mariners say that in the midst of the ' Atlantic, about where the 25th meridian' ' west from Greenwich crosses the Equator, | there lies a region of mystery. It is on ' the line that ships take from Madeira to ' Brazil. Only within the past half century has it been sounded, and its strange ' phenomena reported. One investigator declared that he saw 1 the sea about half a mile from his vessel ' suddenly disturbed. For about two ' minutes it boiled up violently as from a 1 subterranean spring. Throughout the day there were observed great patches of dis--1 coloured water, which had exactly the appearance of extensive shoals. These and similar phenomena are frequently observed in this part of the ocean. Often a ship reports that she has experienced a violent shock, similar to that which is felt when a rock is struck. Sometimes a great rumbling is heard, like that of a heavy chain running through the hawse-pipes, and the vessel quivep like a leaf In the wind. At another time, in smooth water, a vessel has been known to heel over suddenly, as if she had run on a sand-bank. Before this part of the ocean was as thoroughly , sounded and surveyed as it is now these phenomena were attributed to tbe presence of unmarked sand-banks and rocky shoals, and the old charts were marked accordingly. But it must have astonished the mariner somewhat to find that hp got no soundings with his deep-sea lead immediately after experiencing one of these shocks. It is now generally believed that submarine earthquakes are the true cause of these convulsions.