I907.] AND CONTRACTION OF THE EARTH. 251 



is entirely out of place, for the spheroidal form of the whole earth is the 

 result of the system of the universe, and the phenomenon which he men- 

 tions do not in the least change its general form; such little matters being 

 entirely lost in the great mass of the earth. Still they cause various peculiari- 

 ties in different parts of our globe, and result from a variety of causes. 



" He points out as a most interesting subject for disquisition the fact of 

 our finding, often quite inland, two or three thousand stadia from the sea, 

 vast numbers of muscle, oyster, and scallop-shells, and salt-water lakes. He 

 gives as an instance, that about the temple of Ammon, ancj along the road 

 to it for the space of 3,000 stadia, there are yet found a vast amount of 

 oyster shells, many salt-beds, and salt springs bubbling up, besides which are 

 pointed out numerous fragments of wreck which they say have been cast 

 up through some opening, and dolphins placed on pedestals with the inscrip- 

 tions. Of the delegates from Gyrene. Herein he agrees with the opinion 

 of Strato the natural philosopher, and Xanthus of Lydia. Xanthus men- 

 tioned that in the reign of Ataxerxes there was so great a drought, that every 

 river, lake, and well was dried up : and that in many places he had seen a 

 long way from the sea fossil shells, some like cockles, others resembling 

 scallop shells, also salt lakes in Armenia, Matiana and Lower Phrygia, which 

 induced him to believe that the sea had formerly been where the land now 

 was. Strato, who went more deeply into the cause of these phenomena, was 

 of opinion that formerly there was no exit to the Euxine as now at Byzan- 

 tium, but that the rivers running into it had forced a way through, and thus 

 let the waters escape into the Propontis, and thence to the Hellespont. And 

 that a like change had occurred in the ^Mediterranean. For the sea being 

 overflowed by the rivers, had opened for itself a passage by the Pillars of 

 Hercules, and thus, much that was formerly covered by water, had been left 

 dry. He gives as the cause of this, that anciently the levels of the Mediter- 

 ranean and Atlantic were not the same, and states that a bank of earth, the 

 remains of the ancient separation of the two seas, is still stretched under 

 water from Europe to Africa. He adds, that the Euxine is the most shallow, 

 and the seas of Crete, Sicily and Sardinia much deeper, which is occasioned 

 by the number of large rivers flowing into the Euxine both from the north 

 and east, and so filling it up with mud, whilst the others preserve their depth. 

 This is the cause of the remarkable sweetness of the Euxine Sea, and of the 

 currents which regularly set towards the deepest part. He gives it as his 

 opinion, that should the rivers continue to flow in the same direction, the 

 Euxine will in time be filled up (by the deposits), since already the left side 

 "of the sea is little else than shallows, as also Salmydessus, and the shoals at 

 the mouth of the Ister, and the desert of Scythia, which sailors call the Breasts. 

 Probably too the temple of Ammon was originally close to the sea. though 

 now, by the continual deposit of the waters, it is quite inland : and he con- 

 jectures that it was owing to its being so near the sea that it became so 

 celebrated and illustrious, and that it never would have enjoyed the credit 

 it now possesses had it always been equally remote from the sea. Egypt too 

 (he says) was formerly covered by sea as far as the marshes near Pelusium, 

 Mount Casius, and the Lake Sirbonis. Even at the present time, when salt 

 is being dug in Eg}-pt, the beds are found under layers of sand and mingled 



