THE ORIENTAL MIGRATION. 273 



dotted over with numerous freshwater lakes. Grad- 

 ually the sea encroached upon this land from the 

 south, owing chiefly to extensive subsidences having 

 taken place. Only very recently, says Professor 

 Suess, did the whole of the ^Egean continent subside 

 (i., p. 437). Huge cliffs of levantine freshwater 

 deposits now mark the new coast-line, and the Medi-. 

 terranean advances steadily towards the Black Sea 

 and the Sea of Asov. A new order of things is now 

 established, continues the famous author of Das 

 Antlitz der Erde; where there were high mountains 

 we now behold a deep sea, in some places many 

 thousand feet deep. All this took place quite 

 recently, geologically speaking, certainly in post- 

 glacial times; and man may even have witnessed 

 these imposing events. Most geologists admit the 

 correctness of these views. They are, moreover, 

 built upon such solid geological evidence, that even 

 if the science of zoogeography had not yet taught us 

 anything, naturalists would not hesitate in accepting 

 them. 



Animals and plants were free to migrate from 

 Central and Southern Asia to Greece by land for 

 untold ages. The vast accumulation of mammalian 

 bones which have been discovered at Pikermi, and so 

 ably described by Gaudry, are probably to a large 

 extent the remains of Asiatic immigrants to Europe. 

 Many of these resemble forms still living in South 

 Africa, which implies that a highway existed also at 

 that time between Asia and Africa. Among these is 



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