SUNKEN CITIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 11985, 6 February 1903, Page 4

SUNKEN CITIES.

It is believed by many that Venice is «nlring into the Adriatic, and that she gradually will disappear beneath the waters *jf the great lagoon from which her palacecrownea islands arise. Other cities have gi>ne that way before her, and ships now tail over spots which were once teeming with a populous life. One sunken city of renown is Baiie, that splendid resort ou the Italian coast where .N'ero and Caligula "revelled and drank deep." A straggling Tillage and heaps of marble ruins still stand upon the shore and bear the name of Baiae, bat the greater part, of the city lies beneath the waters of the Mediterranean, and tourists from .Naples go out through there to gaze down into the waters and try to catch a glimpse of the submerged city. The resort of all the wealthy noble of Rome, when Rome was mistress of the world, Baiae was a marvel of l uxnrious splendour. Palace after palace was built on the shore, and architects designed magnificent structures extecding out into the sea. When Rome decayed and the Goths ravaged Italy, Baiae was sacked I»y the invaders. Soon after the city began fc sink. First the buildings which had their foundation in the water subsided beneath the waves, and then the sea made an attack on the land. Gradually the shore line receded and the Mediterranean flowed through the streets where Hadrian had walked thinking of his next poem. These promontories, crowned with grind towers and gorgeous palaces, were undermined and toppied into the deep, until at last the major part of the splendid city was submerged. Its disappearance wis not sudden, like that of Port Royal, through some convulsion of nature, but Baiae went <iown to its death gradually, as Venice is said to be going. In Holland the subsidence of the land has brought it about that many towns, once populous, are now covered by the sea. The old Roman camp at Brittenburg, after sicking beneath the waves, emerged again in 1520, only to disappear, and its remains now lie in deep water opposite the town of Katwijk. The original Katwijk itself now is beneath the waters, as also are the original towns of Schreveningen, Domburg, and Eemond. In fact, a succession of towns bearing these names are now at the bottom of the sea, for they repeatedly have been rebuilt further inland as the land

sunk and the waves came in to take pos-. session. The Goodwin Sands, large and dangerous shoals off the south-west coast of England, were once above the water, and formed a flourishing estate, the property of Karl Goodwin. There was no city on the Goodwin Kstate when it subsided beneath the sea. but several small villages went uowa to the deep when the tract of country gradually disappeared in the waters*. There are legends which may or may not be true of lost cities sunk at the bottom of Swiss lakes.