,907 ] AND CONTRACTION OF THE EARTH. 263 



the mainland to the island of Pharos; but in some cases, by the receding 

 of the sea, as, according to the same author, was the case with the Circaean 

 isles. The same thing also happened in the harbour of Ambracia, for a 

 space of 10,000 paces, and was also said to have taken place for 5000 at the 

 Piraeus of Athens, and likewise at Ephesus, where formerly the sea washed 

 the walls of the temple of Diana. Indeed, if we may believe Herodotus, 

 the sea came beyond Memphis, as far as the mountains of Ethiopia, and 

 also from the plains of Arabia. ""The sea also surrounded Ilium and the 

 whole of Teuthrania, and covered the plain through which the Maeander flows. 



Chap. 88 (86) — The Mode in which Islands Rise up. 

 " Land is sometimes formed in a different manner, rising suddenly out 

 of the sea, as if nature was compensating the earth for its losses, restoring 

 in one place what she had swallowed up in another. 



" Chap. 89 (87) — What Islands have been Formed, and at what Periods. 



" Delos and Rhodes, islands which have now been long famous, are re- 

 corded to have risen up in this way. More lately there have been some 

 smaller islands formed ; Anapha, which is beyond Melos ; Nea, between 

 Lemnos and the Hellespont ; Halone, between Lebedos and Teos ; Thera 

 and Therasia, among the Cyclades, in the fourth year of the 135th Olympiad. 

 And among the same islands, 130 years afterwards, Hiera, also called Auto- 

 mate, made its appearance; also Thia, at the distance of two stadia from 

 the former, no years afterwards, in our own times, when M. Junius Silanus 

 and L. Balbus were consuls, on the 8th of the ides of July. 



" 88. Opposite to us, and near to Italy, among the ^olian isles, an 

 island emerged from the sea; and likewise one near Crete, 2,500 paces in 

 extent, and with warm springs in it ; another made its appearance in the 

 third year of the 163rd Olympiad, in the Tuscan gulf, burning with a violent 

 explosion. There is a tradition too that a great number of fishes were 

 floating about the spot, and that those who employed them for food immedi- 

 ately expired. It is said that the Pithecusan isles rose up, in the same wa)% 

 in the bay of Campania, and that shortly afterwards, the mountain Epopos, 

 from which flame had suddenly burst forth, was reduced to the level of the 

 neighbouring plain. In the same island, it is said, that a town was sunk 

 in the sea; that in consequence of another shock, a lake burst out, and that, 

 by a third, Prochytas was formed into an island, the neighbouring mountains 

 being rolled away from it. 



" Chap. 90 — Lands which have been Separated by the Sea. 

 " In the ordinary course of things islands are also formed by this means. 

 The sea has torn Sicily from Italy, Cyprus from Syria, Euboea from Bceotia, 

 Atalante and Macris from Eubcea, Besbycus from Bithynia, and Leucosia 

 from the promontory of the Sirens. 



"Chap. 91 (89) — Islands which have been United to the Mainland. 

 "Again, islands are taken from the sea and added to the mainland; 

 Antissa to Lesbos, Zephyrium to Halicarnassus, ^thusa to Myndus, Dro- 



