LONG LOST CONTINENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22208, 10 March 1934, Page 18

LONG LOST CONTINENT

exploring ocean bed mountains under the sea. It is familar knowledge that animal life is not possible in many old world rivers owing to the discharge into them, from industrial works. It is not so well known, perhaps, that there are areas m the Black Sea and in some of the hoi (Is of Norway where the decay of plant and animal matter is so intense as to restrict life below a certain depth These areas are enclosed by laud, which explains the conditions, but a recent discovery has brought to light an area in the open seas which is so impregnated with sulphurrctted hydrogen that no life can exist. This stretch of sea is below the 140-fathom mark in the Gulf of Oman, off the eastern cape ot Arabia. The poison comes from the outpourings of the Euphrates and I igns. These .rivers bring down good food as well, for the upper waters of the Gull arc rich in animal life. This discovery is one of the manj made last autumn by the Sir John Murray Expedition, whose ship, a 140lt. trawler lent by the Egyptian Government, has made four cruises nil the Red bea and the Indian Ocean. The expedition has great scientific value for the Challenger did not sail in Indian waters. Soundings have been taken and some most interesting facts established concerning the ocean bed. Off the coast of Baluchistan arc two submerged mountain ranges, one ol which rises to a height of 10,000 ft above the general level of the ocean bed. io the south of this mountain chain is a deep valley carved out in geological limes by a river which flowed across the north ot India. . , , In the area discovered is a lost continent, to which scientists have given the name of Lemuria, because when the sun was shining on its forests and plains, the lemurs, now rare, were the most advanced animals brought into existence bv evolution. They were the first of the Primates, the order to which Man belongs. The expedition was lately cruising in the part of the Indian Ocean lying between Ceylon and Zanzibar, a region seldom crossed by ships and consequently little known.