346 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



projections into the land, especially in its northern regions, where it forms many mediter- 

 ranean, or close seas, of immense size. This feature of its basin confers important 

 advantages upon the nations that occupy its coasts, facilitates inter-communication, and 

 has contributed in no slight degree to their superior civilisation. It is now the great 

 highway of the world's commerce, has constantly property amounting to many millions 

 in value upon its surface, and day and night the lives of thousands are at the mercy of 

 its winds and waves. According to Humboldt, the form of the Atlantic basin is that of 

 a longitudinal valley, whose projecting and retiring angles correspond to one another. 

 Theorising with reference to its origin, he refers it to a very violent rush of the waters 

 from the south, which, upon being obstructed in their course by the Brazilian mountains, 

 took an easterly direction, and scooped out that remarkable indentation of Africa now 

 forming the Gulf of Guinea. He supposes, that being stopped by the high coast of 

 Upper Guinea, the stream ran again to the west, and gave origin to a similar indentation 

 of the American shore, now occupied by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico ; and issuing 

 thence, it proceeded between the mountains of "Western Europe and those of North 

 America, gradually diminishing in its velocity and force, until it at length subsided. We 

 have had occasion before to remark upon the striking configuration of the east and west 

 sides of the Atlantic, as though its continental shores had once been united, and been 

 riven asunder by some grand catastrophe. 



The Mediterranean arm of the Atlantic is its most important branch, extending through 





The JEgea.n Sea from JEgina.. 



48 of longitude. No second example occurs of the 

 ocean penetrating inland to such an extent, or one at all 

 comparable with it. This was the Great Sea of the 

 ancients, a title which proclaims their limited knowledge 

 of physical geography. It is, however, an ocean en petit, 

 daily becoming of greater commercial and political im- 

 portance, since the overland route through Egypt to the 

 East has been established. In no other part of the 

 globe is there such a variety of coast-line within a few 

 days' sail the rich landscapes of Spain, the hot stony 

 pavement of Libya, the sandy plains of the Nile, the 

 volcanic shores of Italy and Sicily, the bold southern 

 heights of Asia Minor, the rugged promontories of the Greek peninsula, and the white 



