ENVIRONS OF NICE. 45) 
factory result. I may simply notice, however, that while 
Broccnr contends that the waters of the Mediterranean have 
been allowed to escape by the opening of the Strait of Gibral- 
tar, he combats the hypothesis entertained by Russo, founded on 
the traditions recorded by Srraso, that the influx of the Euxine, 
when it first broke its way into the Mediterranean through the 
Thracian Bosphorus, elevated the level of the Mediterranean, 
while it was yet separated from the ocean. That such an event 
might have caused an immense wave to have inundated the 
adjoining coasts, is most probable; but its influence would be 
very transient ; for all the water that could have been drained off 
from the Caspian and the Euxine united, by the occurrence of 
such a catastrophe, unless we are to suppose them to have been 
far more extensive than they are at present, would have very 
little influence on a space of such immensity as the Mediter- 
ranean. 
One thing, however, appears very clear, that the alteration 
of the relative levels has not been occasioned by the elevation 
of the land, subsequent to the deposition of the gravel beds, 
whatever may have happened previous to that period. The 
characters of these alluvial heaps, on which I found my ar- 
guments, are entirely distinct from those of the transition and 
floetz rocks, whose territories are so often invaded by the gra- 
nite and trap formations, and elevated with every appearance 
of violence and agitation. The beds of gravel, on the contrary, 
have undergone no alteration, excepting where furrowed by 
the action of surface-water, since their original deposition. 
They appear to have been left exactly in their present situa- 
tion, and exactly in the same way as the debris brought down 
by the continuation of the same process still continues to be, 
and bear the most satisfactory marks of having remained ever 
_since in a state of perfect quiescence. 
3L2 As 
