1796. ] 
from the depofits of a fea at reft, and 
which the {cooping of the rivers has 
laid bare. Firft, occur ftrata of depofited 
earth, mingled with blocks of granite, 
“detached from their original rock ; then, 
vaft banks of rolled pebbles and of gravel, 
mingled with fragments of calcareous 
ftone, of petrifactions, broken or changed 
into flint, and even of bones. A like 
fubverfion of the original ftrata, and ef- 
pecially of the calcareous beds, has been 
obferved in the environs of lake Onega, 
- where thofe mountains begin to rife 
‘which join the Laplandifh and Swedith 
Alps. Thefe traces of the fea may be 
obierved in all the lands contiguous to 
the Gulf of .Finland, where, for the 
moft part, the lefs folid ftrata are re- 
moved from the furface of the ancient 
rock itfelf, too firm to be affected. It 
almoft feems fufficient to dwell upon the 
map with an intelligent eye, in order to 
be convinced that the great numver of 
lakes between this gulf and the white 
fea—that the iflands, rocks, and broken 
coafis of thefe regions, are effects of a 
deluge, which there fought an outlet.’’ 
Atta Acad. Petropolitane, for 1777, p.49.V. 1. 
‘¢ The idea of the indefatigable Tour- 
nefort, and of the Count de Buffon, con- 
cerning the ancient ftate of the Black 
Sea, and of its communication with the 
Cafpian, is more and more confirmed by 
the obfervations of travellers. The 
phocz, fome fifth, and fome fhells, which 
the Cafpian has in common with the 
Black Sea, render this ancient comimuni- 
cation almoft indubitable; and thefe very 
circumftances alfo prove that the lake 
Aral was once joined to the Cafpian. 
I have traced (in the third volume of my 
travels) the ancient extent of this fea 
over the whole defert of Aftrakhan, and 
beyond the Jaik, by the fymptoms of 
coaft with which the elevated plains of 
Ruffia border this defert, by the flate 
and the foilil produétions of this ancient 
coaft, and by the faline mud, mingled 
with fea-fhells, calcined, which covers 
the whole furface of the defert itfelf. 
In the Defcription of Ukrain, by Guil- 
laume le Vaffeur (Rouen 4to. 1660) a 
paflage (p. 9) afcribes the fame appear- 
“ances to the plains of the Boryfthenes. 
Chandler,’in his Travels through Afia 
Minor, thinks, that the fea formerly ex- 
tended to the fources of the Meander, 
and formed a gulf between the moun- 
tains of Meffoghis and Taurus. Others 
have found recent traces of fea in the 
plains of Afia Minor and of Perfia, and 
along the Danube, very far above the 
Monrsry Mac. No, II. 
On the Primeval Form of Europe. 
oy 
actual limits of the Cafpian and the 
Black Sea. The ancient traditions of 
the fudden effufion of the Black Sea 
through the Propontis, which Tourne- 
fort has fupported by his Obfervations, 
feem, in all ref{peéts, more plaufible than 
the opinion which fuppofes the ancient 
{trait between the Black Sea and the Caf- 
pian to have been dried by the accumu- 
lation of alluvion foil from the rivers.’’ 
Ditto, p. 62. 
The writerof this fragment, in a 
journey through Polith Pruffia, was led 
to remark the tame fymptoms of extenfive 
deficcation in the fandy provinces which 
encompafs the Delta of the Weichfel 
( Viftula) and the Niemen. From the re- 
port of an intelligent Swifs officer, in the 
Ruffian fervice, with whom he travelled 
a while, and whofe military deftinations 
had familiarifed him. with the furface of 
Livonia and Lithuania, it appears no lefs 
probable that the morafly low lands, 
bordering :he Duna and the Nieper, were 
once the bed of a frith, uniting the Bal- 
tic and the Euxine. Penzelius (De Arte 
FHiftorica, p. 78.) mentions the digging up 
of an anchor in Novogrod, and other 
proofs of a recent emergency of the 
region, and. fuppoles the falt-mines of 
Wielicz to be the point of fubfidency or 
lateft flation of the cld fea. Various local 
obfervations then confpire to prove that 
the Baltic once joined the White Sea by 
a tract of water, covering the lakes 
Onega and Ladoga, and the Black Sea 
by a tract of water, covering the greater 
part of Poland: that the Huxine, the 
Cafpian, and the Aral were united with 
each other, and with the northern ocean, 
by traéts or water covering the deferts of 
Aftrakhan and of Munkithalk. Europe, 
then, originally confifted of A CLUSTER 
OF ISLANDS. The middle ifland will 
firft have been united with the Afian 
continent, with Sarmatia, by means of the 
Polifh ifthmus, that being the more ele- 
vated and extenfive. The northern 
ifland will next have united with it by 
means of the Scandinavian ifthmus. And 
thus the ifthmus of Aftrakhan will have 
furnifhed the earlieft path to the nomade 
nations of Afia to extend their migra- 
tions into Europe. a 
In reading the ancient writers, it is 
convenient to keep in view this progref. 
five change of form ; for Europe appears 
to have become a continent within the 
period of recorded hiftory. The Argo- 
nautics of Orpheus are compofed upon 
the prefumption, that it was poflible to 
fail from the Euxine into the Baltic, a 
O proof 
