If this fact be admitted, the probability is, that the 

 influence which the waves, or the current of the tides, 

 may have had on the bottom of a sea, or river, cover- 

 ed with weeds, must be similar to that of the winds 

 passing over lands, covered with weeds or grass ; very 

 little sand would be disturbed. But whether little or 

 much, where is the necessity of resorting to a cause so 

 improbable and uncertain, while the operation of the 

 winds on the surrounding sandy deserts, is so palpable 

 and common to the view of every person, that is dis- 

 posed to notice and examine their effects, and which 

 alone are amply sufficient to produce, in time, all those 

 changes, without the assistance of either waves or 

 currents ? 



To substantiate this fact, it is not necessary to con- 

 fine our views to the gulf of Suez, or the coast of Phoe- 

 nicia. The same or similar changes have taken place, 

 and are still going on upon the borders of the Cas- 

 pian sea, and the sea of Aral, where there are no regu- 

 lar tides and but few rivers. 



Professor Pallas observes that " All the countries 

 on the northern part of the Caspian sea tend to prove 

 that it has decreased, and probably continues to de- 

 crease in a greater proportion than the Mediterranean 

 and other seas."* 



Between the Caspian sea and that of Aral, lies an 

 immense sandy desert, extending from south east to 

 north west, nearly five hundred miles in length. The 



* Pallas's Travels in Russia, vol. I. page 79 or 80. 



