NATURAL HISTORY. 25 



w from east to west ; but in the straits of Gibraltar it 

 Is from west to east. This circumstance is a clear proof 

 that the Mediterranean Sea is not an ancient gulf, but 

 that it has been formed by an irruption, produced by 

 some accidental cause. 



When the ocean forced this passage, it ran through 

 the straits with much more rapidity than it does now, 

 and immediately deluged that large tract of land which 

 formerly joined Europe with Africa. The waters 

 covered all the grounds which were lower than the 

 level of the ocean ; and no part of them is to be seen 

 at present, except the tops of some of the mountains, 

 Mich as part of Italy, Sicily, Malta, Corsica, Sardinia, 

 Cyprus, Rhodes, and the islands of the Archipelago. 



It is not improbable, that the Black Sta will, some 

 time or other, be entirely divided from the Mediter- 

 ranean ; and that the Bosphorus will be choaked up, 

 whenever the rivers shall have accumulated a quantity 

 of materials sufficient for that purpose. 



The Caspian and Black Seas should rather be con- 

 sidered as lakes than as gulfs of the ocean ; because 

 they are perfectly similar to other lakes that receive 

 a number of rivers without any visible outlet, as the 

 Dead Sea, several lakes in Africa, and elsewhere. 



But that we may give some recent examples of the 

 changes of sea into land and of land inio sea. At 

 Venice the bottom of the sea is constantly rising ; and 

 the same thing may be said of most harbours, bays, 

 and mouths of rivers. In Holland, the bottom of the 

 sea is elevated in many places ; the gulf of Zudovzee 

 and the straits of the Texel, cannot receive such large 

 vessels as formerly ; and it is quite evident that the 

 sea is always dammed up, wherever great rivers empty 

 themselves. The Rhine is lost in tie sdnds which 



Vok I. C 



