THE HUMAN SPECIES. 83 



the rivers, is of ancient interest in what relates to 

 the history of Man. Though, for centuries past, little 

 or no addition has been made to the delta, the coast 

 lakes have materially decreased in depth, and the bed 

 of the river is now much higher than in antiquity, 

 since the plain of Thebes is, during inundations, in 

 many parts under water. In Abyssinia, mountains for- 

 merly covered with forests are become pasture lands ; 

 and a large river, the Kibber, which descends from the 

 south-west side of that great mountain system, proceeds 

 obliquely to the eastern coast, and is suddenly arrested 

 at its mouth, under the equatorial line, by a broad 

 beach of shingle, through which the waters percolate to 

 the Indian Ocean. 



On this side, no other facts of interest are offered, 

 excepting the great volcanic spiracles, forming islands 

 far out to the south-east ; and a whole range of craters 

 on tne outside coast of Madagascar, probably with 

 submarine trunks that connect them with tne series 

 on the main coast ; and the straits themselves, which 

 perhaps were formed by the collapse of a part of the 

 Comoro Islands. 



Down the coast, to the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 thence along the western shores to Mauritania, no 

 objects of a direct interest to our present researches 

 present themselves, excepting those clusters of volcanic 

 islands, with craters on peaks of very great elevation, 

 which were believed, by the ancients, and by many 

 moderns admitted, to be the wrecks of the Atlantis, 

 recorded by the priests of Sais as the site of a fearful 



