The Madison Daily Leader

A CITY IN THE SEA.

Ruins of a Large Town Discovered at the Depth of Eighty Feet.

The city authorities at Rovigno, on the peninsula of Istria, in the Adriatic sea, have discovered, a little south of the peninsula, the ruins of a large town at the bottom of the sea. It had been observed for years that fishermen's nets were sometimes entangled in what appeared to be masses of masonry, of which fragments were brought up from the sea bed. Then a diver declared that he had seen walls and streets below the water, and so the authorities of Rovigno decided to investigate. They sent down a diver, who, at the depth of 80 feet, found himself surrounded at the bottom of the sea by ruined walls. Continuing his explorations, he traced the line of walls and was able to distinguish how the streets were laid out. He did not see any doors or windows, for they were hidden by masses of seaweed and incrustations. He traced the masonry for a distance of 100 feet, and there he had to stop, for his diving cord did not permit him to go farther. He had proved beyond a doubt that he had found the ruins of a once inhabited town, which, through some catastrophe, had been covered by the sea. It is probable that these are the ruins of the lost town of Cissa, upon the island of that name, mentioned by Pliny the elder.—New York Sun.