ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 81 



of the Bed Sea. When our Sea (the Mediterranean) 

 retreated, the land was uncovered ; still, however, leaving 

 the Lake of Serbonis : subsequently this lake also broke 

 through its bounds and the water flowed off, so that the 

 lake became a swamp. The banks of Lake Mceris are also 

 more like sea than river banks." An erroneously corrected 



- reading introduced by Grosskurd on account of a passage 

 in Strabo, Lib. xvii. p. 809, Gas., gives instead of Mreris 

 "the Lake Halmyris:" but this latter lake was situated 

 not far from the mouth of the Danube. 



The sluice-theory of Strato led Eratosthenes of Gyrene 

 (the most celebrated of the series of librarians of Alexandria, 

 but less happy than Archimedes in writing on floating 

 bodies), to examine the problem of the equality of level of 

 all external seas, i. e., seas surrounding the Continents. 

 (Strabo, Lib. i. p. 51-56; Lib. ii. p. 104, Casaub). The 

 varied outlines of the northern shores of the Mediterranean, 

 and the articulated form of the peninsulas and islands, had 

 given occasion to the geognostical myth of the ancient land 

 of Lyctonia. The supposed mode of origin of the smaller 

 Syrtis and of fEe Triton Lake (Diod. iii. 53-55) as well 

 as that of the whole Western Atlas (Maximus Tyrius, viii. 

 7) were drawn in to form part of an imaginary scheme of 

 igneous eruptions and earthquakes. (See my Examen crit. 

 de 1'hist. de la Geographic, Vol. i. p. 179; T. iii. p. 136.) 



I have recently touched more in detail on this subject 

 (Kosmos, Bd. ii. S. 153; Engl. ed. p. 118-119) in a 



passage which I permit myself to subjoin : 



" A more richly varied and broken outline gives to the 



VOL. II. G 



