on the Surface of the Morea. 9 



More than a century ago, the waters had reached a much 

 greater height. In the contour of the lake, within 100 metres of 

 its actual height, traces are seen of red coloured mud, which it 

 deposited on the surface of the ground and in all the fissures 

 of the rocks, in the same manner as the identical cement of the 

 osseous breccia traces a red coloured line along the boundaries of 

 the ancient shores. The waters are rising at present, and may 

 obtain a height of 400 metres before finding an outlet towards 

 the plain of Orchomenes, unless the chasms be opened by earth- 

 quakes or pressure. 



According to the ancients and moderns, it appears these fre- 

 quent intermissions in the obstructions and the re-openings of the 

 gulfs of Phonia were attributed to earthquakes. Thus, accord- 

 ing to Eratosthenes, quoted by Strabo, " it sometimes hap- 

 pened, that, in consequence of the obstruction of the chasms, the 

 water inundated the plain, and when they were again opened, it 

 suddenly left it to swell the Laden and the Alpheus; and thus 

 the environs of the temple of Olympia were, on one occasion, 

 inundated at a time when the marshes were dry." Strabo adds, 

 that, at another epoch, some earthquakes having thrown down 

 the walls of the chasms through which the waters flowed, the 

 springs of the Ladon were completely intercepted.* 



In this manner, the clearing-out of the subterraneous outlets, 

 after their obstruction, in consequence of earthquakes or other 

 causes, and the facility with which a torrent tlirown off" from one 

 part of the plain by the increasing height of its bed, finds a 

 new outlet elsewhere, shews, that the creation of drains, and 

 consequently of lakes and caverns in the interior,is a phenomenon 

 of the present time, — a phenomenon, besides, which must have 

 been produced since the sub-apennine epoch, as the existence 

 of enclosed basins is anterior to it. We should, therefore, find 

 fossil bones of that epoch in the caverns of the Morea, if the 



• The President, C. Capo d'Islria, intended to drain this place. At first 

 sight it might be thought that such an undertaking would require Herculean 

 labours; on the contrary, we believe that a geological engineer would 

 easily bring it to a termination by searching in the direction of the galleries, 

 and above the old pits, the parts of the soil which are most broken ; by raising 

 to the banks of the lake the red clay which obstructs the fissures, and by 

 thus assisting to destroy the adherence, which could not be attempted by 

 blasting i in our opinion it would be a bbour of patience rather than toil. 



