AND LOWER EGYPT. 53 



two of our ship's company, who had deserted 

 there, and whom it was impossible to recover. 



BufTon had with learned sagacity demonstrated 

 that the Mediterranean sea, originally a lake of 

 no great extent, must have received, at distant 

 times, a sudden and prodigious increase at the era 

 when the Black Sea opened to itself a passage 

 through the Bosphorus, and at that, when the 

 sinking of the land which, at the site of the straits 

 of Gibraltar, united Africa to Europe, had per- 

 mitted the ocean to force its waters that way * : 

 his idea was, that most of the Mediterranean 

 islands constituted part of the continents, prior to 

 the grand convulsions which changed the face of 

 one part of the globe. In order to ascertain with 

 more precision his opinion respecting these epochas 

 of nature, he had requested me to satisfy myself as 

 to the depth of the sea between Sicily and Malta. 

 It was impossible to have a more favourable op- 

 portunity to fulfil his purpose. We had onboard 

 a coasting pilot, on old man of great experience, 

 and everyway respectable, who, during his nume- 

 rous voyages, had sounded that depth in many 

 places. I availed myself of the calm, to converse 

 with him at leisure on the subject ; and the result 

 of the interesting details with which he furnished 

 me, was perfectly conformable to the ideas of Buf- 



* Theory of the Earth, and Epochas of Nature. 



E 3 fon. 



