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the lake, and it's breadth, is as seven to three. 

 At present the town of Valencia is separated 

 from the lake by level ground of more than 

 two thousand seven hundred toises, which 

 Oviedo would no doubt have estimated as a 

 space of a league and a half ; and the length 

 of the basin of the lake is to it's breadth as 10 

 to 2*3, or as 7 to 1*6. The appearance of the 

 soil between Valencia and Guigue, the little hills 

 that rise abruptly in the plain, East of the Cano 

 de Cambury, and some of which (el Islote and 

 la Isla de la Negra, or Caratapona) have even 

 preserved the name of islands, sufficiently prove, 

 that the waters have retired considerably since 

 the time of Oviedo. With respect to the change 

 in the general form of the lake, it appears to 

 me improbable, that in the seventeenth century 

 it's breadth was nearly the half of it's length. 

 The situation of the granitic mountains of 

 Mariara and of Guigue, the slope of the ground, 

 which rises more rapidly toward the North and 

 South than toward the East and West, are 

 alike repugnant to this supposition. 



In treating the long-discussed question of 

 the diminution of the waters, I couceive we 

 must distinguish the different periods, at which 

 the sinking of their level has taken place. 

 Wherever we examine the valleys of rivers, or 

 the basins of lakes, we see the ancient shore 

 at great distances. No doubt seems now to be 



