278 SEE— TEMPERATURE, SECULAR COOLING [April 20, 



It is impossible that all of the landslips assumed by Professor 

 Suess to account for the numerous ruins beneath the sea, in Italy, 

 Greece and Asia Minor, can be real ; for as a rule such slips would 

 depend on the breadth of the base, and the dip of the underlying- 

 strata. Unless the dip is very steep, sliding with a broad base is 

 nearly impossible. Even with abundant underground water, the 

 sliding of a broad mass is very difficult, for there will be rocks or 

 obstructions somewhere which hold it fast. We have already re- 

 marked in regard to the mausoleum of Makri that the photograph 

 given by Professor Suess (Vol. II., p. 449) shows that the alluvium 

 is about a mile wide, and very flat. As the adjacent sea seems to 

 be shallow, such a broad mass could not slide into it by the shakings 

 of an earthquake. On the contrary it is clear that the coast sank 

 and carried down the mausoleum with it, so that it is now washed 

 by the tides and waves. 



In conclusion we may hold that the ^gean sea probably is 

 rising, and that within recent geological time Asia Minor and Syria 

 have been raised from the sea; so that the Pontus and Caspian 

 were formerly continuations of the Mediterranean, but are now cut 

 off by the secular movement of the earth's crust. Many volcanoes 

 have formerly been active in Asia Minor and Syria, which shows 

 that geologically the region is one of elevation. Lava from be- 

 neath the Mediterranean, as well as the Pontus and Caspian, es- 

 capes under this region, and in the sinking of the sea bottom the 

 shore is sometimes carried down with it, as in Pamphylia and other 

 places which we have discussed. But in the course of geological 

 ages movement of elevation predominates. Unless this were true, 

 it is highly improbable that the whole region between the Mediter- 

 ranean, Pontus and Caspian would be so powerfully afflicted by 

 earthquakes.^ 



^ Since this paper was finished a severe earthquake has occurred at 

 Bitlis in the mountains of Armenia. A press dispatch of April 4, from 

 Constantinople, gives the following report from the Rev. Roy T. Lee, head 

 of the American Mission at Bitlis : 



" At ten o'clock in the forenoon of March twenty-ninth there burst upon 

 us unannounced the worst earthquake experienced in forty years in these 

 or the Ezerum volcanic regions. Such was its force that our city seemed 

 to be in the jaws of some monster who would shake us into shreds as some 

 mastiff does his game. Down came the plastering, the furniture was over- 



