not Australia, New Zealand, Australasia, united to the archipelagos of the Pacific, have once formed a sixth part of the world, as important as Europe or Asia, as Africa or the two Americas? To my mind, it is quite possible that all these islands, emerging from this vast ocean, are but the summits of a continent, now submerged, but which was above the waters at an ante-historic period."
"As Atlantis was formerly," replied Herbert.
"Yes, my boy… if, however, it has existed."
"And would Lincoln Island have been a part of that continent?" asked Pencroft.
"It is probable," replied Cyrus Harding, "and that would sufficiently explain the variety of productions which are seen on its surface."
"And the great number of animals which still inhabit it," added Herbert.
"Yes, my boy," replied the engineer, "and you furnish me with an argument to support my theory. It is certain, from what we have seen, that animals are numerous on this island, and what is more strange, the species vary extremely. There is a reason for that, and to me it is that Lincoln Island may have formerly been a part of some vast continent which has gradually sunk below the Pacific."
"Then, some fine day," said Pencroft, who did not appear to be entirely convinced, "the rest of this ancient continent may disappear in its turn, and there will be nothing between America and Asia."
"Yes," replied Harding, "there will be new continents which billions of animalculæ are building at this moment."
"And what are these masons?" asked Pencroft.
"Coral insects," replied Cyrus Harding. "By constant work they made the island of Clermont-Tonnerre, and numerous other coral islands in the Pacific Ocean. Forty-seven millions of these insects are needed to weigh a grain, and yet, with the sea salt they absorb, the solid elements of water which they assimilate, these animalculæ produce limestone, and this limestone forms enormous submarine erections, of which the hardness and solidity equal granite. Formerly, at the first periods of creation, nature employing fire, heaved up the land, but now she entrusts to these microscopic creatures the task of replacing this agent, of which the dynamic power in the interior of the globe has evidently
