“The Gauls possessed traditions upon the subject of Atlantis which were collected by the Roman historian Timagenes, who lived in the first century before Christ.  He represents that three distinct people dwelt in Gaul:  1.  The indigenous population, which I suppose to be Mongoloids, who had long dwelt in Europe; 2.  The invaders from a distant island, which I understand to be Atlantis; 3.  The Aryan Gauls.” ("Preadamites,” p. 380.)

Marcellus, in a work on the Ethiopians, speaks of seven islands lying in the Atlantic Ocean—­probably the Canaries—­and the inhabitants of these islands, he says, preserve the memory of a much greater island, Atlantis, “which had for a long time exercised dominion over the smaller ones.” (Didot Mueller, “Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum,” vol. iv., p. 443.)

Diodorus Siculus relates that the Phoenicians discovered “a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, several days’ sail from the coast of Africa.  This island abounded in all manner of riches.  The soil was exceedingly fertile; the scenery was diversified by rivers, mountains, and forests.  It was the custom of the inhabitants to retire during the summer to magnificent country-houses, which stood in the midst of beautiful gardens.  Fish and game were found in great abundance; the climate was delicious, and the trees bore fruit at all seasons of the year.”  Homer, Plutarch, and other ancient writers mention islands situated in the Atlantic, “several thousand stadia from the Pillars of Hercules.”  Silenus tells Midas that there was another continent besides Europe, Asia, and Africa—­“a country where gold and silver are so plentiful that they are esteemed no more than we esteem iron.”  St. Clement, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, says that there were other worlds beyond the ocean.

Attention may here be called to the extraordinary number of instances in which allusion is made in the Old Testament to the “islands of the sea,” especially in Isaiah and Ezekiel.  What had an inland people, like the Jews, to do with seas and islands?  Did these references grow out of vague traditions linking their race with “islands in the sea?”

The Orphic Argonaut sings of the division of the ancient Lyktonia into separate islands.  He says,” When the dark-haired Poseidon, in anger with Father Kronion, struck Lyktonia with the golden trident.”

Plato states that the Egyptians told Solon that the destruction of Atlantis occurred 9000 years before that date, to wit, about 9600 years before the Christian era.  This looks like an extraordinarily long period of time, but it must be remembered that geologists claim that the remains of man found in the caves of Europe date back 500,000 years; and the fossil Calaveras skull was found deep under the base of Table Mountain, California, the whole mountain having been formed since the man to whom it belonged lived and died.