CHAP. 92. (90.)—LANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN TOTALLY
CHANGED INTO SEAS.
The sea has totally carried off certain lands, and first of
all, if we are to believe Plato[1], for an immense space where
the Atlantic ocean is now extended. More lately we see
what has been produced by our inland sea; Acarnania has
been overwhelmed by the Ambracian gulf, Achaia by the
Corinthian, Europe and Asia by the Propontis and Pontus.
And besides these, the sea has rent asunder Leucas, Antirrhium, the
Hellespont, and the two Bosphori[2].
1. This celebrated narrative of Plato is contained in his Timæus, Op. ix.
p. 296, 297; it may be presumed that it was not altogether a fiction on
the part of the author, but it is, at this time, impossible to determine
what part of it was derived from ancient traditions and what from the
fertile stores of his own imagination. It is referred to by various ancient
writers, among others by Strabo. See also the remarks of Brotier in
Lemaire, i. 416, 417.
2. Many of these changes on the surface of the globe, and others
mentioned by our author in this part of his work, are alluded to by
Ovid, in
his beautiful abstract of the Pythagorean doctrine, Metam. xv.
passim.