OOOO CU 
A RECENT VISIT TO THE DALMATIAN COAST. 45 
south, and upon which the water is comparatively shallow. The most 
westerly of the deep basins lies between the Balearic Islands and 
a north and south ridge, which is in part visible above the sea 
level in the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, and the deep area is 
continued towards the west to a point within one hundred and 
fifty miles of the Straits of Gibraltar. The depth of this basin is 
from eight thousand to ten thousand feet. In the Straits of 
Gibraltar itself the water is shallow. 
In the Tyrrhenian Sea, between the Corsican ridge and the 
shores of Italy, there is another deep but smaller depression reach- 
ing depths of over twelve thousand feet. Between the western 
extremity of Sicily and the African Coast the water is very 
shallow, as it also is between Cape Passero, the south-eastern 
point of Sicily, and the opposite point of the African Coast. 
Between these two ridges lies a small deep basin of an area 
approximately that of Sicily. 
From the eastern shores of Sicily another deep area sets in, 
the largest of all the Mediterranean depressions. This extends 
northwards into part of the Ionian Sea, and eastward as far as the 
island of Cyprus. 
It is evident, therefore, that the Mediterranean includes four 
deep depressions separated by comparatively shallow water, and 
that an elevation of the sea bottom of only about two hundred 
fathoms, or a drying up of the water to the same extent, would 
convert this now continuous sea into a chain of four lakes, 
whose physical connection with the further chain of lakes formed 
by the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Sea of Aral, would be 
even more apparent than it is at present. 
That the Mediterranean has consisted, at perhaps more than 
one period of its history, of such a chain of lakes there is strong 
geological evidence to show, but it would occupy too much space 
to give you the evidence upon which that opinion is based. It 
must suffice to say that strong proof can be adduced that during 
Pleistocene times, there was a ridge of land connecting Cape 
Passero in Sicily with the African Coast through Malta, whilst at 
the same time Spain and Africa were also united, so that the 
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