ti TILE ARYAN QUESTION. 301 



Black Sea. A vast extent of eastern Europe and 

 of western central Asia thus became a huge reser- 

 voir, the lowest part of the lip of which was prob- 

 ably situated somewhat more than 200 feet above 

 the sea level, along the present southern watershed 

 of the Obi, which flows into the Arctic Ocean. 

 Into this basin, the largest rivers of Europe, such 

 as the Danube and the Volga, and what were then 

 great rivers of Asia, the Oxus and Jaxartes, with 

 all the intermediate affluents, poured their waters. 

 In addition, it received the overflow of Lake Bal- 

 kash, then much larger; and, probably, that of the 

 inland sea of Mongolia. At that time, the level 

 of the Sea of Aral stood at least 60 feet higher than 

 it does at present.* Instead of the separate Black, 

 Caspian, and Aral seas, there was one vast Ponto- 

 Aralian Mediterranean, which must have been pro- 

 longed into arms and fiords along the lower val- 

 leys of the Danube, the Volga (in the course of 

 which Caspian shells are now found as far as the 

 Kuma), the Ural, and the other affluent rivers — 

 while it seems to have sent its overflow, northward, 

 through the present basin of the Obi. At the 

 same time, there is reason to believe that the north- 

 ern coast of Asia, which everywhere shows signs of 

 recent slow upheaval, was situated far to the south 

 of its present position. The consequences of this 



* This is proved by the old shore-marks on the hill 

 of Kashkanatao in the midst of the delta of the Oxus. 

 Some authorities put the ancient level very much higher — 

 200 feet or more (Keane, Asia, p. 408). 



