14 PHYSICAL GEOGRANIY OF THE SEA. 



In the eastern Mediterranean new measurements have proved 

 that they are still more considerable, while in the western part 

 of that inclosed sea they are almost imperceptible. 



The differences of level caused by the Mediterranean tides, 

 are indeed too inconsiderable to attract the general notice of the 

 inhabitants on the coast, but in the famed Euripus, the narrow 

 channel which separates the island of Eubcea or Negropont from 

 continental Greece, the tide produces the striking phenomenon 

 of very irregular fluctuations of the waters, from one end of the 

 channel to the other. 



This phenomenon was of course completely inexplicable to 

 the ancient philosophers, and Aristotle is even said to have 

 drowned himself in the Euripus in a fit of despair, since, with 

 all his prodigious sagacity, he could not possibly solve the 

 mystery. For us, who know that peculiar formations of the 

 sea-bed and coasts are capable of considerably augmenting the 

 force of the floods, and that tidal waves rushing into a narrow 

 channel in opposite directions, and at different times, must 

 necessarily produce irregular fluctuations of the waters, the 

 phenomenon of the Euripus has ceased to be a mystery. 



