I 298 3 



own liypothefis and is deftitute of the fupport even of the moft 

 fabulous tradition, i. Epoques. 8vo. p. 291. 



The rupture of the ifthmus was probably fudden and total, 

 and confequently effeded by an earthquake. To difcover its ef- 

 fedts, we muft firft confider the antecedent ftate of the Medi- 

 terranean : 



The Mediterranean, before its union with the Black Sea and 

 ihe Ocean, was moft probably a bafon much narrower and Shal- 

 lower than at prefent ; for though it received feveral confiderable 

 rivers, the Nile, the Rhone and the Po, yet fince even now 

 evaporation from its furface is fufRcient to prevent it from over- 

 flowing, notwithftanding that the Ocean on the one fide and 

 the Euxine on the other flow into it, we may well fuppofe that 

 when it communicated with neither, evaporation kept its level 

 much lower 5 when therefore by the rupture of the Thracian Ifth- 

 mus on the one fide, and of the African which joined Ceuta with 

 Gibraltar on the other, the waters of both were poured in upon 

 it, an immenfe prefTure took place on its bed, under which it 

 funk and fell into the inferior cavity of the globe ; during this 

 tremendous tumult the iflands of Sicily, Sardinia, Corfica and 

 thofe of the Archipelago were torn off, and Italy was lengthened 

 to its prefent fhape. The neighbouring fhores of France and 

 Spain, and more efpccially thofc of Africa as being much lower, 



and 



