264 YIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



the Sicilian and the Sardinian seas are, on the contrary, very 

 deep: the cause of this being that the former is filled with 

 mud from the numerous large rivers flowing into it from the 

 north. Hence too the Euxine is the freshest, and the streams 

 -flowing from it are directed towards the parts where the bot- 

 tom is deepest. It would also appear that if these rivers 

 continue to flow into the Euxine, it will some day be com- 

 pletely choked with mud, for even now, its left side is becom- 

 ing marshy in the direction of Salmydessus (the Thracian 

 Apollonia), at the part called by mariners ' The Breasts,' 

 before the mouth of the Ister and the desert of Scythia. 

 Perhaps, therefore, the Lybian Temple of Amnion may also 

 have once stood on the sea-shore, its present position in the 

 interior of the country being in consequence of such off-flow- 

 ings of rivers. Strato also conjectures that the fame and 

 celebrity of the Oracle (of Amnion) is more easily accounted 

 for, on the supposition that the temple was on the sea-shore, 

 since its great distance from the coast would otherwise make 

 its present distinction and fame inexplicable. Egypt also was 

 in ancient times overflowed by the sea as far as the marshes 

 of Pelusium, Mount Casius, and Lake Serbonis; for when- 

 ever in digging it happened that salt-water was met with, 

 the borings passed through strata of sea-sand and shells, 

 as if the country had been inundated, and the whole dis- 

 trict around Mount Casius and Gerrha had been a marshy 

 sea, continuous with the Gulf of the lied Sea. When 

 the sea (the Mediterranean) retreated, the country was 

 uncovered, leaving, however, the present Lake Serbonis. 

 Subsequently the waters of this lake also flowed off, convert- 

 ing its bed into a swamp. In like manner the banks of Lake 

 Mceris resemble more the shores of a sea than those of a 

 river." An erroneous reading introduced as an emendation 

 by Grosskurd, in consequence of a passage in Strabo,* gives 

 in place of Meeris, " the Lake Halmyris, ; ' but the latter was 

 situated near the southern mouth of the Danube. 



The Sluice-theory of Strato led Eratosthenes of Cyrene 

 (the most celebrated in the series of the librarians of Alex- 

 andria) to investigate the problem of the uniformity of level 

 in all external seas flowing round continents, although with 

 less success than Archimedes in his treatise on floating 



* Lib. xvii. p. 809. Casaub. 



