340 Captain Puillon-Boblayc on the Tidal and other Zones 



of Greece, whatever may be their nature in other respects, — a 

 fact which seems to announce as many up-raisings of the conti- 

 nent, or depressions cf the level of the sea, with a prolonged 

 continuance at each of these levels. It will not perhaps be im- 

 possible to connect the littoral alluvium of Argolis, the fahluns 

 of Toryne, and some other small deposites, with recent move- 

 ments of the land ; perhaps even one day we may be able to 

 recognise their coincidence with some of the historic deluges of 

 the Mediterranean, as that of Ogyges or Attica, for example. 

 The deposites of shells of St Hospice, near Nice, those of the 

 borders of the Hellespont observed by M. Olivier, and a great 

 many more in the basin of the Mediterranean, belong probably 

 to the same phenomenon; but I do not know if terraces or 

 ledges such as those of which I have spoken have been ob- 

 served in these localities. 



The Black Zone. 



Above the superior limit of the tide, in its calm state, there 

 is a band of a very deep colour, passing from black to greenish- 

 brown. Its elevation varies according to the localities ; it rises 

 much more in those places where the shore is most violently 

 beaten by the tide. At Cape Matapan it attains a height of 

 from seven to eight yards. It is the part of the shore washed 

 by the wave after it has been broken. In every part of this 

 zone, but chiefly in its inferior part, the rocks are so corroded, 

 that they appear only as rough branches twisted, and connected 

 together by some points. Towards the points where these 

 branches again join to the mass of the rock, the tortuous ca- 

 vities, although always situated in the planes of the fissure, 

 sink to the depth of many yards. Although the traces of the 

 fissures may have almost entirely disappeared, so much are 

 they widened and broken up, it is evident that they have ex- 

 erted a great influence over the destruction of the limestone 

 rock. This destruction is more complete the nearer we ap- 

 proach to the level of the sea ; again some efforts, and all this 

 part destroyed will join itself to the submarine slope on which 

 it rests. 



It is at this elevation that we[remark, on all the sharp asperi- 

 ties which again cover the limestone, a smooth mammillated sub- 



