12 SCIENCE OF THE GREEKS. PT. I. 



growth of deltas and new deposits, as in the case of Antissa 

 joined to Lesbos, Pharos to Egypt, &c. 



5. Peninsulas have been divided from the mainland and 

 have become islands, as Leucadia ; and according to tradi 

 tion Sicily, the sea having carried away the isthmus. 



6. Land has been submerged by earthquakes ; the Gre 

 cian cities of Helice and Buris, for example, are to be seen 

 under the sea, with their walls inclined. 



7. There are streams which have a petrifying power, and 

 convert the substances which they touch into marble. 



8. Volcanic vents shift their position ; there was a time 

 when Etna was not a burning mountain, and the time will 

 come when it will cease to burn. 



These, and other sentences of the same kind, show how 

 carefully Pythagoras and his followers must have observed 

 nature, for the changes that are going on upon the earth take 

 place so very slowly that it is only by very careful comparison 

 that we can prove they are happening at all. Pythagoras 

 was the first man who was called a philosopher, or lover of 

 wisdom. He made many discoveries about musical notes, 

 and succeeded in stretching strings so that when struck they 

 gave the right notes of the octave in succession. 



