THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. 239 



Sicily and Africa ; burning* for several weeks, and throwing 

 up an isle or crater-cone of scoriae and ashes. Scarcely had 

 this isle been named before it was again lost by subsidence 

 beneath the sea; leaving only a shoal bank to attest the 

 strange submarine breach in the earth's crust, which thus 

 mingled fire and water in one common action. 



o 



These details illustrate thai; new science of Physical Geo- 

 graphy which has already added so largely to our knowledge 

 of the earth we inhabit, and which gives such certain and 

 ample promise to future research. The same principle of 

 illustration will carry us yet farther ; for the physical history 

 of the Mediterranean is in every part singularly blended 

 with the history of the nations which have successively had 

 dominion on its shores ; and with the arts, literature, and 

 social usages which have ever rendered remarkable this 

 portion of the globe. It has been remarked by an eminent 

 philosopher, that human culture and civilisation have gene- 

 rally clung to countries brought into proximity and ease of 

 intercourse by inland seas and deeply-indented coasts. Ad- 

 mitting the reality of this view, the Mediterranean may be 

 cited as a happy illustration of the fact. And in the same 

 sense its strangely irregular northern boundary presents a 

 striking contrast to the unbroken and riverless line of the 

 African coast, from Morocco to the mouth of the Nile. 

 Egypt and Carthage, indeed, grew into grandeur on this less 

 favoured coast. But Egypt rested on the Nile and the Eed 

 Sea; while Carthage, of Phoenician origin, had little supre- 

 macy on the African continent, but much as a naval power, 

 frequenting or subduing the European coasts and islands on 

 the opposite side of the Mediterranean. 



It would be a matter of mere technical geography to enu- 

 merate the several chains or groups of mountains which 

 encircle and define this inland sea ; the Sierra Nevada 

 the long African chain of Atlas the Maritime Alps and 



