304 THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



cities, nay entire continents, are covered by the 

 waters : there, on the other hand, the land has been 

 known to rise, as in the case of the island of Julia, and 

 in that of the Azores, and the Archipelago of Santorin. 

 The port of Aigues Mortes has now three leagues of 

 shore. The ruined Temple of Serapis, at Pozzuoli, was 

 for a long time engulfed ; it is now uncovered again. 

 In the north of Sweden the sea appears to be retiring, 

 whilst it slowly invades the south of that country, and 

 at no very distant period it was the cause of great 

 destruction by its inroads in Pomeiania. 



4. The Quantity of "Water which covers the Earth is sensibly con- 

 stant — An Elevation in one point is balanced by a corre- 

 sponding Subsidence in another — Aristotle's opinion about 

 the Greek tradition of the Deluge — The Earth will become 

 dryer and colder. 



If the sea retires from a given phice, another be- 

 comes submerged. We are, therefore, led to con- 

 clude that the water area varies but little over the 

 whole of the earth's surface, but that the bed in 

 which it rests is ceaselessly modified. 



Such, moreover, was Aristotle's opinion. He be- 

 lieved that the apparent changes in the level of the 

 sea in any given spo^ could not be explained by the 

 supposition that the seas were drying up, as certain 

 philosophers of his time had imagined. In the 



