344 Captain Pulllon-Boblaye on the Tidal mid other Zones 



the limits which I have assigned to the aura maritima, exliibit 

 traces of a deep erosion, while those of the same age built in 

 the interior are unaltered, as at the period of their erection ; and, 

 on the other hand, the monuments of the epoch of the Cru- 

 sades, or of the French domination, situated on the shore, 

 already exhibit marks of erosion. 



Some have been able to observe the effect of this action in 

 the same place, and on the same materials *, impressed at once 

 on monuments 600 and 3000 years old ; and upon the rocks on 

 which they are built, rocks which in this place become to us the 

 historic monuments of the last Mediterranean movement, or of 

 the period of the settling of this sea into its present basin. This 

 order of phenomena, notwithstanding the smallness of its effects, 

 seems to me favourable for the estimation of time, because the 

 effect being simple and constant, the effects ought evidently to 

 be proportioned to the time, while the phenomena of land gained 

 by the continued formation of alluvium depend on variable 

 causes, and causes which uniformly tend to annihilation, and 

 which can with great difficulty lead us to any approximation. 



Grooves and Decayed Rocl's of Ancient Shores. 



My observations relative to the grooves of the greater decli- 

 vity, have hitherto been extended only to littoral rocks, and to 

 the actions exerted in our times. We shall find in the interior 

 of the continent, and even to the elevation of a thousand yards, 

 effects of the same nature, which will completely establish the 

 analogy which I have already hinted at between the ancient 

 shores and those of the present sea. 



The action of atmospheric agents upon compact limestones 

 and marbles of the interior of the Continent, appears at this 

 time to reduce itself to fissures, which at length cause the de- 

 struction of some projecting parts, but otherwise there is no 

 erosion such as that on the shore. Yet we observe in many 

 places, and at great heights, grooves directed according to the 

 line of the greater declivity, analogous in all their characters to 



* It is to be recollected that we here speak only of marbles and compact 

 limestones. The calcaire grossiere, or coarse limestone, of which the greater 

 number of the monuments of the Morea are formed, experience in every po- 

 sition a rapid destruction through atmospherical agency. 



