398 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



pointed out great changes by the accession of soil since the era of that geographer, by 

 which havens have been filled up, islands joined to the continent, and the coast line 

 advanced several miles into the ancient territory of the sea. 



Coast of Asia Minor from the Isle of Samos. 



n the same manner extension has taken place on the 

 western coast, though there is no foundation for the 



speculation of Dr. Chandler, that Samos will join the mainland, unless some great con 

 vulsion should elevate the bed of the sea, and check the force of the current. The 

 Meander was anciently noted for the production of new land, so that the sophist affirmed, 

 though with characteristic exaggeration, that the river had taken the sea from the na 

 vigator, and given it to the husbandman to be divided into fields ; that furrows were 

 seen in the place of waves, and kids sporting in the room of dolphins ; and that, in 

 stead of hearing the hoarse mariner, you were delighted with the sweet echo of the 

 pastoral pipe. The river was indictable for removing the soil when its margin fell 

 in, and the person who recovered damages was paid from the income of the ferries. At 

 the site of Ephesus a similar alteration has transpired. The branch of the sea which 

 formed the port is now a vast morass, overgrown with trees and brushwood. The mud 

 of the Cayster has propagated new tracts of soil, and the ocean has been driven back 

 by the augmented plain two or three miles from its former boundary, so that a visitor 

 to the ruins of the city now, destitute of previous information, would never suppose it 

 to have had at any time a free communication with the sea. 



The detritus, transported by the affluents of the Rhone from the Alps of Dauphiny and 

 the mountains of Central France, has contributed to an augmentation of the land at the 

 mouth of the river, so that its arms have become longer by three leagues since Gaul was 

 a Roman province, and many places once situated by the sea are now removed several 

 miles from it. Sir C. Lyell cites from M. Hoff some striking proofs of the accession made 

 to the delta of the Rhone during the period embraced by the annals of history. Mese, 

 described under the appellation of Mesua Collis by Pomponius Mela, and stated by him 

 to be nearly an island, is now far inland. Notre Dame des Ports, also, was an harbour 

 in 898, but is now a league from the shore. Psalmodi was an island in 815, and is now 

 two leagues from the sea. Several old lines of towers and sea marks occur at different 

 distances from the present coast, all indicating the successive retreat of the sea, for each 

 line has in its turn become useless to mariners, the tower of Pignaux, erected on the 



