328 On (he Comparative Level of Lakes and Seas, 



Armenia; and those of the Caucasus. Hence, without having recourse 

 to a comctj is it not natural to suppose that the upraising of the enor- 

 mous masses of roclc we have just named, was sufficient to induce the 

 sensible depression of the intermediate localities ? This solution of a 

 curious problem in physical geography which the shores of the Caspian 

 has originated, may so much the less give rise to serious difficulties, 

 inasmuch as in these very regions the surface, even at the present day, is 

 not altogether stable ; and the bottom of the Caspian Sea itself presents 

 alterations of elevations and depressions. It is, however, true, that the 

 fact under discussion will lose much of its interest, if we investigate it as 

 a fiim'plQ meteorological 2^henomenon. Suppose that a Julia island should 

 happen to rise in the middle of the Straits of Gibraltar, and close up the 

 entrance. Immediately, the rapid current which a portion of the waters 

 of the ocean constantly pours into the Mediterranean would cease ; im- 

 mediately the level of the Mediterranean would fall, for the total volume 

 of the rivers it receives would not compensate, as it appears, for the loss 

 resulting from evaporation. During this gradual lowering of the level 

 of the sea, parts which are now submerged would appear above the 

 waves, would connect themselves with the neighbouring continents, and 

 would remain, as at present, beneath the level of the ocean. This, per- 

 haps, is the solution of the whole problem of the Caspian, and especially, 

 if with some geologists we add, that, in this sea, large volcanic crevices, 

 from time to time, permit its waters to dissipate themselves in the bowels 

 of the earth, and thus render the difference more sensible which, even 

 without this occurrence, already existed between the effects of the annual 

 evaporation, and the waters supplied by the Volga, the Oural, the Terek, 

 and other rivers."* 



These judicious considerations acquire still greater importance when 

 we consider the additional information collected since the days of the 

 illustrious Pallas, t especially from the maps of Major Khatov,^ and 

 from the detailed investigations of M. Parrot, upon the plains which ex- 

 tend in the steppe of the Kalraucs and Turcomans, between the Black 

 and Caspian Seas, in the 45° and 47° of latitude. A slightly elevated 

 ridge detaches itself from the Caucasus, running from the Elbrouz to- 

 wards Stavropol, in the direction from south to north. Upon the oppo- 

 site slopes of this ridge there take their origin, first, the Kouban and the 

 Terek,§ and then the legorlik and the Kouma, which, at the end of 



* See Notices Scientifiques by M. Arago, inserted in the Annxiaire du Bureau des 

 Longitudes, 1832, p. 352. 



t Pallas, Voyage dans les Provinces mcridionales de la Russie in 1793 and 1794, 

 T. i. p. 235. Dureau de La Malle, Geograx>hie physique de la Mer-Noire, p. 176, 

 194, and 264. Compare also Pansner and Zeune, in the Journal of M. Berghaus, 

 1836, No. 140, p. 179 and 187. 



X Maps (in 10 sheets), published by VEtat-Major of the Imperial Army, repre- 

 senting the country between the Black Sea and the Caspian. 



§ Since the commencement of the 17th century, great changes have taken place 



