ENVIRONS OF NICE. 



451 



factory result. I may simply notice, however, that while 

 Brocchi contends that the waters of the Mediterranean have 

 been allowed to escape by the opening of the Strait of Gibral- 

 tar, he combats the hypothesis entertained by Risso, founded on 

 the traditions recorded by Strabo, that the influx of the Euxine, 

 when it first broke its way into the Mediterranean through the 

 Thracian Bosphorus, elevated the level of the Mediterranean, 

 while it was yet separated from the ocean. That such an event 

 might have caused an immense wave to have inundated the 

 adjoining coasts, is most probable ; but its influence would be 

 very transient ; for all the water that could have been drained off 

 from the Caspian and the Euxine united, by the occurrence of 

 such a catastrophe, unless we are to suppose them to have been 

 far more extensive than they are at present, would have very 

 little influence on a space of such immensity as the Mediter- 

 ranean. 



One thing, however, appears very clear, that the alteration 

 of the relative levels has not been occasioned by the elevation 

 of the land, subsequent to the deposition of the gravel beds, 

 whatever may have happened previous to that period. The 

 characters of these alluvial heaps, on which I found my ar- 

 guments, are entirely distinct from those of the transition and 

 flcetz rocks, whose territories are so often invaded by the gra- 

 nite and trap formations, and elevated with every appearance 

 of violence and agitation. The beds of gravel, on the contrary, 

 have undergone no alteration, excepting where furrowed by 

 the action of surface-water, since their original deposition. 

 They appear to have been left exactly in their present situa- 

 tion, and exactly in the same way as the debris brought down 

 by the continuation of the same process still continues to be, 

 and bear the most satisfactory marks of having remained ever 

 since in a state of perfect quiescence. 



3 L 2 As 



