428 



DELTA OF THE KHONE. 



[Ch. XVlii. 



Roman road from 



Msmes (N< 



It is clear 



that when this was first constructed, it was impossible to 

 pass in a direct line, as now, across the delta, and that either 

 the sea or marshes intervened in a tract now consisting of 

 terra firma* Astruc also remarks, that all the places on low 

 lands, lying to the north of the old Roman road between 

 Nismes and Beziers, have names of Celtic origin, evidently 

 o-iven to them by the first inhabitants of the country ; whereas, 

 the places lying south of that road, towards the sea, have 

 names of Latin derivation, and were clearly founded after the 

 Roman language had been introduced. 



Another proof, also, of the great extent of land which has 

 come into existence since the Romans conquered and colo- 

 nised Gaul, is derived from the fact, that the Roman writers 

 never mention the thermal waters of Balaruc in the delta, 

 although they were well acquainted with those of Aix, and 

 others still more distant, and attached great importance to 

 them, as they invariably did to all hot springs . The waters of 



must have forme 



nomenon 



borders 



Mediter 



ranean ; and on the advance of the delta they continued to 

 flow out through the new deposits. 



mor 



Me sua 



find that Mese, described under the appellation of 

 Collis by Pomponius Mela,t and stated by him to be nearly 

 an island, is now far inland. Notre Dame des Ports, also, 

 was a harbour in 898, and is now two leagues from the shore. 

 Psalmodi was an island in 815, and is now two leagues from 

 the sea. Several old lines of towers and sea-marks occur at 

 different distances from the present coast, all indicating the 

 successive retreat of the sea, for each line has in its turn be- 

 come useless to mariners ; which may well be conceived, when 

 we state that the Tower of Tignaux, erected on the shore so 

 late as the year 1737, is already a mile remote from it. J 

 By the confluence of the Rhone and the currents of the 



* Mem. d' Astruc, cited by Von Hoff, 

 vol. i. p. 288. 

 f Lib. ii. c. v. 



| Bouche, Chorograpbie et 

 Provence, vol. i. p. 23, cited 

 HofF, vol. i. p. 290. 



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