280 HASISADRA'S ADVENTURE vn 



the valley of the adjacent delta of the Nile was a 

 gulf of the sea in mioceiie times. But there is 

 not a particle of evidence that the change of 

 relative level which admitted the waters of the 

 Indian Ocean between Arabia and Africa, 'took 

 place any faster than that which is now going on 

 in Greenland and Scandinavia, and which has left 

 their inhabitants undisturbed. Even more re- 

 markable changes were effected, towards the end 

 of, or since, the glacial epoch, over the region now 

 occupied by the Levantine Mediterranean and the 

 ^Egean Sea. The eastern coast region of Asia 

 Minor, the western of Greece, and many of the 

 intermediate islands, exhibit thick masses of 

 stratified deposits of later tertiary age and of 

 purely lacustrine characters ; and it is remarkable 

 that, on the south side of the island of Crete, 

 such masses present steep cliffs facing the sea, so 

 that the southern boundary of the lake in which 

 they were formed must have been situated where 

 the sea now flows. Indeed, there are valid 

 reasons for the supposition that the dry land once 

 extended far to the west of the present Levantine 

 coast, and not improbably forced the Nile to seek 

 an outlet to the north-east of its present delta a 

 possibility of no small importance in relation to 

 certain puzzling facts in the geographical distri- 

 bution of animals in this region. At any rate, 

 continuous land joined Asia Minor with the 

 Balkan peninsula ; and its surface bore deep fresh- 



