Ararat, Pison, and Jerusalem, 263 



the Sarasu discharged itself into the Aral, now into the Telc- 

 ghiil, five days'' journey from that Lake, — " a picture, on the 

 small scale, of the Gihon, Caspian and Aral, on the large." — 

 " Even now, the level of the lower Sihon, the Upper Irtisch, 

 the Tobol, and the Ural rivers, is constantly changing, from the 

 constant process of exsiccation." Every lake is becoming more 

 and more covered with vegetation, and its surface daily dimi- 

 nishing, and the soil becoming more sohd. This continual dry- 

 ing process is even very observable in the memory of the inha- 

 bitants ,• even the innumerable salt lakes, which are every where 

 scattered in these wastes, and the extensive saline Steppes of 

 Ischym and Barnaul, covered with a layer two feet deep of 

 saliferous clay and sand, seem to be the bottom of an ancient 

 sea, which has been laid dry in the memory of man^ — and which, 

 perhaps a thousand years ago, was intermediate between the 

 Ocean and the Continent, and belonged to the ancient basin of 

 the Caspian." Who can refuse his assent to the same conclusion, 

 after the facts quoted from Ritter ? He even traces a water- 

 communication between the Aral and the Irtisch *, and by the 

 latter with the Icy Sea. 



If we trace now the coast of the Icy Sea westwards to the 

 mouth of the Petschora, where a moorish steppe of several 

 thousand square miles is said to exist, as a proof of its former 

 covering of water, how near is the Kama to the great river 

 Wolga. If there is found here any higher water-shed, it is 

 certainly very inconsiderable between the western Dwina and 

 the Wolga, because both rivers are now united by canals. If 

 the level of the Caspian should rise 500 feet, it would be united 

 to the Euxine, according to Ritter. 



That such a union did exist at some former period, appears 

 both from the testimony of the ancients and the present aspect 

 of nature -f*. Scymnaes of Chios notices a connexion between 

 the Tanais and Araxes. Valerius Flaccus extended the Black 

 Sea far to the north, and made it equal in size to the Mediter- 

 ranean. Salt and shells arc found to the north of the Caspian 

 as far as Sarpa, and the shells are exactly the same with those in 

 the Caspian. The union of the Caspian and Euxine was, ac- 



• The Steppes of Barnaul are even to the east of'tlic Irtisch. 

 t V. Ilotf. i. IOC, &c. 



