246 THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. 



apparently good authority, that one sounding between Alex- 

 andria and Ehodes reached the bottom at a depth of 9,900 

 feet ; another, between Alexandria and Candia, gave a depth 

 of 300 feet beyond this. These single soundings, indeed, 

 whether of ocean or sea, are always subject to the certainty 

 that greater, as well as lesser depths must exist, to which no 

 line has ever been sunk ; a case coming under that general 

 law of Probabilities so largely applicable in every part of 

 physics. In the Mediterranean especially, which has so many 

 aspects of a sunken basin., there may be abysses of depth 

 which no plummet is ever destined to reach. 



This mere outline of the Mediterranean in its prominent 

 features, establishes its pre-eminence over every other inland 

 sea on the globe. The Baltic is another singular inlet, 

 spreading its long and narrow gulfs into the centre of 

 Northern Europe ; but as different in its physical characters 

 as in its relation to the history of the world. Far inferior in 

 extent, accessible only through shallow straits, and with 

 a depth which in no part exceeds 1,100 feet, its waters are 

 brackish and tideless, its coasts and isles flat and monotonous 

 throughout. No historical monuments, save a few of me- 

 diaeval age, are found within its circuit. Ancient history 

 indeed gathers none but the most vague and scanty records 

 from its shores, notwithstanding that we know them to have 

 been traversed by some of those great races whose migration 

 from the East has so mightily affected the destinies of Western 

 Europe. Though for a time animated by the mercantile ac- 

 tivity of the Hanseatic League, yet until the epoch and 

 creations of Peter the Great, when the Empire of Muscovy 

 reached the mouth of the Neva, the Baltic had a very small 

 share in the political or commercial interests of the European 

 world. The revolutions of the Swedish monarchy, and the 

 campaigns of Grustavus Adolphus and Charles XII. form the 

 only conspicuous exceptions to this remark. 



