300 THEORY of the EARTH. 



for ever, and thus the fyftem of interchanging the place of fea 

 and land upon this globe might be fruftrated. It is only 

 meant to affirm, that the quantity which thofe rocks, or that 

 coaft, have diminifhed from the period of our hiftory, has 

 either been too fmall a thing for human obfervation, or, which 

 is more probable, that no accurate meafurement of the fubjecl, 

 by which this quantity of decreafe might have been afcertained, 

 had been taken and recorded. It muft be alfo evident, that a 

 very fmall operation of an earthquake would be fufficient to 

 render every means of information, in this manner of menfu- 

 ration, unfatisfadory or precarious. 



PLINY fays Italy was diflant from Sicily a mile and a half; 

 but we cannot fuppofe that this meafure was taken any other- 

 wife than by computation, and fuch a meafure is but little cal- 

 culated to afford us the juft means of a comparifon with the 

 prefent diflance. He alfo fays, indeed, that Sicily had been 

 once joined with Italy. His words are: " Quondam BRUTIO 

 " agro cohserens, mox interfufo mari avulfa *." But all that 

 we can conclude from this hiftory of PLINY is, that, in all 

 times, to people confidering the appearances of thofe two ap- 

 proached coafts, it had feemed probable, that the fea formed a 

 paffage between the two countries which had been once united ; 

 in like manner as is ftill more immediately perceived, in that 

 fmaller disjunction which is made between the ifland of Anglefey 

 and the continent of Wales. 



THE port of Syracufe, with the ifland which forms the greater 

 and lefler, and the fountain of Arethufa, the water of which 

 the ancients divided from the fea with a wall, do not feem to be 

 altered. From Sicily to the coaft of Egypt, there is an uninter- 

 rupted courfe of fea- for a thoufand miles; confequently, the 

 wind, in fuch a ftretch of fea, mould bring powerful waves 

 againft thofe coafts. But, on this coaft of Egypt, we find the 

 rock on which. was formerly built the famous tower of Pharos ; 



and 



*. Lib. 3. cap. 8. , 



