THE HUMAN SPECIES. 139 



and was particularly recorded at Dodona.* They were the 

 necessary precursors of the first swarming of the tribes that 

 came down the Hellespont, and commenced the heroic age of 

 Greece and Italy. 



In the Adriatic, at the summit of the gulf, we find Adria, or 

 Hadria, said to have been built on the sea-shore, by Tarchon, 

 leader of the antique Etruscan people, about the time of the 

 Trojan war. The present town, standing upon the rubbish of 

 two others, is now fifteen and a half miles distant from the 

 nearest mouth of the river Tartarus, which is still six miles 

 within the farthest point of land projecting in the sea.t It is 

 only of late years that, in making excavations at the depth of 

 several feet below the present surface of the town, a former 

 level was found, with numerous fragments of Etruscan and 

 Roman pottery ; and, at a still greater depth, a second floor, 

 where all the earthen-ware fragments proved to be Etruscan 

 alone, and there were vestiges of a theatre ! In these facts, 

 both the raising of the soil and progress of alluvial deposits are 

 demonstrated in waters but little disturbed by marine currents, 

 and during a space of 3000 years. 



THE EGEAN. 



In the Egean, volcanic disturbances have been and still are 

 exceedingly numerous and destructive. From the remotest 

 periods recorded, islands have risen up from the sea ; such as 

 volcanic Delos, overhung with vapors to the present time ; or 

 torn from the continent of Asia, like Samos, with its ancient 

 organic remains of Neiades, and craters, one of which com- 

 menced latterly to furnish a rivulet running to the sea ; and 



* Scholiast upon the ICth Iliad, v. 233, quoting Thrasyhulus, an ancient 

 author, and other comments. 



tNow Podi Levante, and most likely the oldest hed of the Padus or 

 Po? The lowest stratum of ruins was at the depth of more than twenty 

 fcet. 



