THE MEDITERRANEAN, PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL. 263 



Sometimes the drainage, instead of flooding open spaces and forming 

 chotts, finds its way through the permeable sand till it meets imper- 

 meable strata below it, thus forming vast subterranean reservoirs where 

 the artesian sound daily works as great miracles as did Moses's rod of 

 yore at Meribah. I have seen a column of water thrown up into the 

 air equal to 1,300 cubic meters i)er diem, a quantity sui33cient to redeem 

 1,800 acres of laud from sterility and to irrigate G0,000 palm trees. 

 This seems to be the true solution of the problem of an inland sea, a 

 sea of verdure and fertility caused by the multiplication of artesian 

 wells, which never fail to bring riches and prosperity in their train. 



The climate of the Sahara is quite different from that of what I have 

 called the Mediterranean region, where periodical rains divide the year 

 into two seasons. Here, in many places, years elai)se without a single 

 shower; there is no refreshing dew at night, and the ^iuds are robbed 

 of their moisture by the immense continental extents over which they 

 blow. There can be no doubt that it is to these meteorological and 

 not to geological causes that the Sahara owes its existence. Eeclus 

 divides the Mediterranean into two basins, which, in memory of their 

 history, he calls the Phoenician and the Carthaginian, or the Greek and 

 Eoman Seas, more generally known to us as the Eastern and Western 

 Basins, separated by the island of Sicily. 



If we examine the submarine map of the Mediterranean we see that 

 it must at one time have consisted of two inclosed or inland basins, 

 like the Dead Sea. The western one is separated from the Atlantic by 

 the Straits of Gibraltar, a shallow ridge, the deepest part of which is 

 at its eastern extremity, averaging about 300 fathoms, while on the 

 west, bounded by a line from Cape Spartel to Trafalgar, it varies from 

 50 to 200 fathoms. Fifty miles to the west of the straits the bottom 

 suddenly sinks down to the depths of the Atlantic, while to the east 

 it descends to the general level of the Mediterranean, from 1,000 to 

 2,000 fathoms. 



The Western is separated from the Eastern Basin by the isthmus 

 which extends between Cape Bon, in Tunisia, and Sicily, known as the 

 "Adventure Bank," on which there is not more than from 30 to 250 

 fathoms. The depth between Italy and Sicily is insignificant, and 

 Malta is a continuation of the latter, being only separated from it by a 

 shallow patch of from 50 to 100 fathoms, while to the east and west of 

 this bank the depth of the sea is very great. These shallows cut oft 

 the two basins from all but superficial communication. 



The configuration of the bottom shows that the whole of this strait 

 was at one lime continuous land, alibrding free communication for land 

 animals between Africa and Europe. The palseontological evidence of 

 this is quite conclusive. In the caves and fissures of Malta, amongst 

 river detritus, are found three species of fossil elephants, a hippopota- 

 mus, a gigantic dormouse, and other animals which could never have 

 lived in so small an island. In Sicily, remains of the existing elephant 



