46 A RECENT VISIT TO THE DALMATIAN COAST. 
earth-movements which finally disunited Europe from Africa must 
have taken place at a period which is, geologically speaking, but 
yesterday. Thus we see that the making of one continuous 
Mediterranean and the final preparation of this great inland sea 
for the part it had to play in the civilization of the world, was not 
completed until after the appearance of palzolithic man. 
There are many other points connected with the physical 
history of the Mediterranean which are of very great interest, but 
I must now give you some more detailed account of a portion of 
our journey. 
In steaming from Corfu to Venice we had already obtained 
something more than a glimpse of the Dalmatian Coast, as we had 
kept pretty close to the eastern shores of the Adriatic, threading 
our way through some of the outlying islands. It was, however, 
only after leaving behind us all the glories of Venice that we 
shaped our course almost south-east with the intention of making 
Spalato our first place of call on the opposite coast. The gradual 
change in the colour and appearance of the water claims our 
attention as we sail farther to the south and east. The muddy 
yellowness which characterises the water on the Italian side 
gradually gives place successively to yellowish green, green, and 
blue as the Dalmatian Coast is reached. This is due to the 
gradual subsidence of the mud carried out into deeper water from 
the mouths of the Po and Adige, the water-borne detritus of the 
streams and glaciers which flow down the sides of the far distant 
Alps. 
On the eastern shores of the Adriatic the rivers are small, and 
run for the most part through hard rock, so that the amount of 
sediment on this side does not sully the purity of the water to the 
same extent. Blue, however, as the water is in this part of the 
Adriatic, it is altogether surpassed by the azure hue of the 
Mediterranean itself. I had always imagined that the deep blue 
of the Mediterranean was largely due to the reflected glories of the 
southern sky above it. This, however, is not the case. The sky 
seen in the late spring and summer is seldom of that depth of 
colour which we generally associate with the idea of an Italian or 
