80 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



Pillars. The proofs which Strato gives of this are, first 

 that there is still a bank under water running from 

 Europe to Libya, shewing that the outer and inner seas 

 were formerly divided; and next that the Euxine is the 

 shallowest, the Cretan, Sicilian, and Sardoic Seas being on 

 the contrary very deep ; the reason being that the Euxine 

 has been filled with mud by the many and large rivers flowing 

 into it from the North, while the other seas continued 

 deep. The Euxine is also the freshest, and the waters 

 flow towards the parts where the bottom of the sea is 

 lowest. Hence he inferred that the whole of the Euxine 

 would finally be choked with mud if the rivers were to 

 continue to flow into it : and this is already in some 

 degree the case on the west side of the Euxine towards 

 Salmydessus (the Thracian Apollonia), and at what are 

 called by mariners the " Breasts" off the mouth of the 

 Ister and along the shore of the Scythian Desert. Perhaps 

 the Temple of Ammon (in Lybia) may once have stood on 

 the sea-shore, and causes such as these may explain why it 

 is now far inland. This Strato thought might account for 

 the celebrity of the Oracle, which would be less surprising 

 if it had been on the sea-shore; whereas its great distance 

 from the coast made its present renown inexplicable. 

 Egypt, too, had been formerly overflowed by the sea as far 

 as the marshes of Pelusium, Mount Casius, and Lake Ser- 

 bonis ; for, on digging beneath the surface, beds of sea-sand 

 and shells are found ; shewing that the country was 

 formerly overflowed, and the whole district round Mount 

 Casius and Gerrha was a marshy sea which joined the gulf 



