554 



BLACK SEA. 



great inundations, one of which opened the canal of 

 the Hellespont that separated Europe from Asia ; 

 aod Strabo and Xanthus bear testimony to the same 

 event, which seems to have happened about 152<) 

 years before Christ. 



We shall now proceed to state the evidence in 

 support of this remarkable fact, as collected from 

 the observations of modem naturalists and travel- 

 lers. 



According to Toumefort, (I'oyage an Levant, 

 torn. ii. p. 12<1, 125, &c.,) the Black Sea appears to 

 have been an immense lake, formed by the waters of 

 innumerable rivers, and unconnected with the Medi- 

 terranean, and could only empty itself through the 

 Thracian Bosphorus. The mountains which are 

 interposed between it and the Caspian Sea, prevent 

 any opening towards the east. The waters of the 

 Sea of Azof fall into the Black Sea, from north to 

 south, and oppose any passage in that direction. 

 The rivers of Asia push the waters of the Black Sea 

 from south to north. The Danube impels them 

 from the west. It is therefore at the isles of Cya- 

 ncse. alone, between the lighthouses of Europe and 

 Asia, which are situated at the mouth of the Bos- 

 phorus, where the waters of the Black Sea could 

 hollow out the earth, and force a passage into the 

 Propontis. 



Buffon (Hist. Nat. torn, ix.) has adduced innu- 

 merable facts to prove, that the Mediterranean Sea, 

 the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Sea of Aral, 

 have at one time been immense lakes ; that the Cas- 

 pian Sea was formerly of great extent, and that the 

 Mediterranean was once much smaller than it is at 

 present ; that the Aral, the Caspian, and the Black 

 Sea, formed only one lake before the opening of the 

 Bosphorus ; and that the Mediterranean, after this 

 opening, was augmented in the same proportion as 

 that lake had diminished. 



" Siberia, Asia, the Red Sea, &c," says Pallas, 

 ( Travels, torn. ix. p. 1G3.) " present evident marks of 

 this deluge, of which all the ancient people of Asia, 

 the Chaldeans, the Persians, the Indians, the Thi- 

 betans, and the Chinese, have preserved the remem- 

 brance, and which they have fixed within a few 

 yean of the Mosaic deluge. Europe, and the low 

 lands of Asia, have since suffered considerable 

 changes by other inundations, sometimes arising from 

 submarine eruptions, sometimes from the sudden 

 overflow of the great inland seas, as the Mediterra- 

 nean and the Euxine, which have left dry extensive 

 plains covered with mud ; and sometimes to irrup- 

 tions of the sea, increased by enormous submarine 

 eruptions. 



" The opinion of the indefatigable Tournefort 

 and Buffon," the same naturalist elsewhere observes, 

 " upon the ancient state of the Black Sea, and its 

 communication with the Caspian, has been more and 

 more confirmed by the observations of travellers. 

 The sea monsters, the fish, and the marine shells, 

 which the Caspian has in common with the Black 

 Sea, render this communication extremely probable ; 

 and the same facts prove also, that the lake of Aral was 

 once joined to the Caspian. In the 3d and 7th vo- 

 lumes of my Travels, I have traced the ancient ex- 



tent of this sea over all the desert of Astracan and 

 that of Jaik ; by that appearance of coasts with which 

 the elevated plains of Russia limit the desert, by the 

 state and the fossil productions of this ancient coast, 

 and by the salted mud mixed with calcined sea shells 

 which cover all the surface of the desert." 



The Cyanean Isles, at the mouth of the Bospho- 

 rus, have been recently examined by Olivier and 

 Choiseul GoufHer, who discovered that these islands 

 were volcanic. " At the mouth of the canal, on 

 both sides of the Bosphorus," says Olivier, ( Vou- 

 age, torn. i. p. 69.) " we were 6truck with the 

 marks of a volcano of several leagues in extent. 

 Every where we observed the rocks more or less al- 

 tered or decomposed ; every where we found incon- 

 testible marks of the action of subterranean fires. 

 We observed jaspers of different colours, carnelians, 

 agates, and chalcedonies, among porphyries, more 

 or less changed ; a breccia, with little solidity, and 

 almost decomposed, formed by fragments of trap, 

 agglutinated by calcareous spar ; a beautiful por- 

 phyry at the base of a rock of greenish trap, colour- 

 ed by copper ; and through an extent of half a 

 league we saw a hard rock of trap, of a greenish 

 blue, equally coloured with copper." In quoting- 

 this able traveller, on the volcanic nature of the 

 banks of the Bosphorus, we ought at the same time 

 to state, that he entertains a different opinion from 

 other naturalists respecting the formation of that 

 strait. He does not believe that the waters of the 

 Black Sea were once more elevated, and that they 

 opened for themselves a passage by the Bosphorus ; 

 but he supposes, that the Propontis, the Euxine, 

 and the Mediterranean, always communicated with 

 each other. He is of opinion, that the Caspian was 

 of much greater extent ; that it communicated with 

 the Sea of Azof, and that their waters had the same 

 level ; and he attributes to the currents of the Don, 

 the Kouban, and the Wolga, the filling up of the 

 canal, and the consequent separation of the two seas. 

 After this separation, he supposes that the Black 

 Sea has not changed its level, because it receives 

 more water than it wastes by evaporation ; and that 

 the Caspian Sea has sunk above 60 feet, because it 

 docs not receive a quantity of water sufficient to sup- 

 ply what is lost by evaporation ; and that it gradually 

 diminished, till an equilibrium existed between the 

 supply and the evaporation 



M. Bergman,* who travelled into the country of 

 the Calmucs in 1802 and 1803, has collected a 

 vast number of facts, to prove that the Asiatic part 

 of the steppes of the Calmucs was once covered with 

 water, and that the Caspian and Black Seas were 

 formerly united. 



We shall now conclude this part of the article, by 

 presenting our readers with the interesting descrip- 

 tion of the appearance of the Thracian Bosphorus, 

 and the nature of the Cyanean Isles, and the ad- 

 joining strata, as given by the ingenious Dr Clarke, 

 in his Travels into different countries of Europe, 

 Asia, and Africa. 



When Dr Clarke, in his voyage from Ineada to 

 Constantinople, first discovered the light tower on the 

 European side of the Bosphorus, it appeared situateda 1 ; 



Black 

 Sea. 



See Journal Untvmclk de Litterature, de Halle, March 1805, No. 56, p. 441, &,(, 



