Retrospect of French Literaiure—Mascellanies. 707 
larger bodies of this element, has also 
considerably decreased. 
After stating, or rather deducing these 
various faets from history, M. Lamalle 
begins to disclose his theory, and to in- 
sinuate that there was a time when the 
Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the 
Aral, were united together, so as to form 
one immense body of water. To shew 
the probability of this speculation, he has 
now recourse to the concurrent testimony 
of modern travellers, who all join in as- 
serting, that these sheets of water are all 
equally salt, all equally productive of 
fish of the same species ; and exhibit the 
same characteristic traits to the eye, 
and even to the taste, of every observer. 
In addition to this, their three basins, as 
they are here called, are separated from 
each other—not by rocks or hills, but by 
plains covered with the relics of marine 
plants, so as to afford a very probable 
suspicion, that they have been covered 
with salt water. 
Recurring to the time of Deucalion’s 
deluge for support to his hypothesis, M. 
Lamalle describes the effects of a great 
catastrophe, which rent asunder all the 
track of country between the Black Sea 
and the Mediterranean. But a deluge 
is not deemed sufficient to have produced 
go many phenomena; it was necessary 
for the production of such grand effects, 
that two terrific elements should be called 
at the same time into action ; and in ad- 
dition to the weight of water, a volcanic 
eruption is therefore supposed to have 
assisted in breaking down the ancient 
barriers of the Euxine Sea, whose waters, 
after having been pent up for ages, aré 
supposed to have rushed into the Pro- 
pontis, entered the Mediterranean, 
flooded the coasts of Asia Minor, Thrace 
and Greece, and to have extended their 
devastations to Egypt and Libya. 
The effects of such an inundation are 
supposed to have been most wonderful 
and disastrous. Some of the affrighted 
inhabitants might have taken refuge on 
the summits of the mountains, and either 
perished from famine, or experienced a 
short and miserable existence. A few 
tribes are supposed indeed to have es- 
caped; but whole nations are thought to 
have been buried under an inundation 
that covered the plains of Beotia, and 
other parts of Greece. At length, on 
the gradual subsiding of the waters, the 
Euxine became nearly empty; the Me- 
-diterranean, in process of time, recovered 
its former level; the rivers returned to 
’ Phantoms, 
their beds; and the Egean Sea became 
studded with islands.} his 
The seven following positions are laid 
down as already demonstrated : 
1. That reckoning from the, time of 
Herodotus to the travels of M. Pallas, 
the sea of Azof has decreased five-sixths 
in circumference. 
2. That the Caspian Sea has receded 
more than one degree and a half towards 
the north, while it has declined one 
third and upwards in bréadth. 
3. That the Black Seahas experienced _ 
an equal degree of change. 
4. That for some centuries prior to 
the age of Herodotus, the Caspian Sea 
the Lake of Aral, the Sea of Azof, and 
the Black Sea, were all united, and to- 
gether formed a volume of water nearly 
equal in extent-to, but without any com- 
munication with, the Mediterranean. 
5. That the irruption of the Black 
Sea into the Mediterranean took place 
1529 years anterior tothe Christian zra. 
6. ‘That in consequence of the over- 
flowing of the Euxine, Rhodes and Delos 
were submerged; and, | 
7. That at:the same time, Ossa was 
seperated from Olympus by an earth- 
quake. . 
“‘ Le Livre des Prodiges, ou Histoires 
et Adventures marveilleuses et re- 
marquables de Spectres, Revenans, Es- 
prits, Fantomes, Demons, &c. dont Jes 
faits et les evenemins sont rapportés 
par des personnes dignes de for, avec 
cette épigraphe._ 
<¢ Mon But est d’amuser et pas d’effrayer.” 
The Book of Prodigies, or: Marvellous 
Histories and Adventures of Ghosts, 
Demons, Wc. concerning 
which the facts and the events which 
have been related by persons worthy of 
credit, &c.—3d edition, with additions. 
It is not a little singular, that gt the 
beginning of the 19th century, Paris, the 
capital of France, should have produced 
a work of this description ; and- what Is 
still more remarkable, that a_ third 
edition should be now printed. By way 
of justifying his motto, in which the 
editor affects to amuse, and not to 
affright, he presents his readers with an 
engraving of a skeleton, hung round 
with chains, which significantly beckons 
a young man to follow him ! 
He then tells us, that the success of the 
“Marvellous” and the “ Terrible,” in Eng- 
land has induced him to publish a work, 
“ the events narrated in which are so 
wonderful and extraordinary, that many 
would 
