\ 



on the Surface of the Morea. 5 



ideas, however, was such, that these were not seen, and do not 

 even appear, in the pretended topographical charts, which, we 

 must say, pervert even at this day the external appearances of 

 the earth, by a conventional method derived from these very 

 hydrographical inductions. 



It is for the geologist to correct such topographical errors. 

 Familiarized with the effects of the dislocations which the crust 

 of the earth has experienced in various directions, he should con- 

 sider that the disposition in basins, either enclosed or communi- 

 cating by mere gorges, ought to be nearly general, and that the 

 regular establishment of the hydraulic laws of the waters, and 

 of the connection of valleys, is only the result, in certain coun- 

 tries, of the absence of dislocations, and in others the effect of 

 the slow modifications of original forms ; — but he should ask 

 how these modifications, which, in the upraised and fractured 

 strata of France, England, Sweden, and Germany, have con- 

 ducted all the water from valley to valley, from the summits of 

 the continents to the sea, have not been productive of the same 

 effect in the southern region, where the centre of the islands and 

 continents remains formed of hydrographical basins, of all sizes, 

 and independent of each other. 



Two causes must aid in producing this phenomenon, the one 

 meteoric, the other geognostic. We are of opinion that the 

 second only is applicable to the enclosed basins in the moun- 

 tainous regions of Greece and Italy. 



For a basin without a subterranean outlet to exist isolated 

 from the lower valleys, it is necessary that there be an equili- 

 brium between the quantity of water which falls, and that which 

 is evaporated throughout the basin ; or, in other words, that 

 the quantity of water evaporated at the surface of the receptacle, 

 surpass or equal that which falls on this extent, together with 

 that which flows into it ; a state of things which cannot exist in 

 the greater part of Europe, and which we shall prove is not ap- 

 j)licable to Greece. It may thus be conceived how, independent 

 of the continued transportation of the alluvion, the progressive 

 rising of the waters produces a communication between the enclos- 

 ed basins and the inferior valleys, as is seen throughout nearly 

 the whole of Europe; whilst in the south and east the same 

 meteoric influences maintain the equihbrium in the waters of the 

 Caspian, and tlic other enclosed Asiatic lakes; and that, still 



