THE HUMAN SPECIES. 47 



CASPIAN BASIN, AN ASIATIC 

 MEDITERRANEAN. 



A GRADUAL upheaving of the Arctic shore, chiefly on 

 the north-west of Tahtary, and also to the west of the 

 Oiiral chain, can alone explain the general fact, which, 

 in the north of Europe, is now fully established ; and 

 furnishes also the best argument to account for the loss 

 of that great inland sea which once spread over the low 

 bed, where now the Obi and Irtish flow united, cover- 

 ing the whole lower Ichim and Tobol, the Barabintz, 

 Lake Aksakal, and the innumerable pools, sea sands, 

 incrustations, and efflorescences of salt, and recent 

 shells. It reached by the Aral to the Caspian, was 

 further connected with the Black or Euxine Sea, at 

 that period inundating a considerable proportion of 

 Southern Russia, and uniting with the Baltic, had again 

 open communication with the White Sea and the Arctic 

 Ocean, both by the Gulf of Bothnia, and by that of 

 Finland* 



The Caspian Sea, by accurate measurements taken in 

 1844, is eighty-three and a half feet below the Mediter- 

 ranean, or about sixty-five feet lower than the Sea of 

 Azoph ; and Lake Aral, though higher, is still known 

 to be below the level of the Euxine. Both are, with 

 the exception of the Caucasian mountain system, and 

 * See Addenda. 



