BLACK SEA.
Black Sea, formerly called the Euxine * Sea, is an immense inland sea, situated between Europe s and Asia, and connected with the Mediterranean by the Straits of Constantinople.
By comparing the accounts of this sea, as given by ancient authors, with the limits assigned to it by re cent observations, it appears unquestionable, that it has sustained a most singular diminution, in conse quence of some great subterranean convulsion.
From the topographical descriptions of the Black Sea, as collected by Valerius Flaccus, from the an cient accounts of the voyages of the Argonauts, it appears, that the gulfs and bays of this lake were ex tremely deep ; and that, in conjunction with the Pains Meotidis, it extended far towards the north, and almost equalled the Mediterranean in magnitude. In the time of Homer, according to Strabo and Eus tathius, the Euxine Sea was regarded as the greatest of all the inland seas ; and received the name of on account of its superior magnitude. Herodotus makes the length of the Euxine Sea, from the Cya nean Isles now the Pavorante) to the river Phasus, 11,100 stadia, or nearly 17 degrees and a half. Proco pins reckons the distance from Chalcedon to the Pha sus at 50 days journey, for a good walker, which, at the rate of nine leagues a-day, will make the dis tance equal to 18 degrees • a result which coincides remarkably with that of Herodotus. As the utmost extent of this sea, however, in the best modern charts, does not exceed 12 degrees and a half, we are entitled to conclude, that it formerly covered the low grounds which stretch towards the base of the mountains of Caucasus.
The north and west coast of this sea seem to have undergone very remarkable changes. The line of its greatest width has undoubtedly varied ; and the im mense volume of waters which is 'rolled from Asia and Europe into this capacious reservoir, seem to have completely changed the outline of its coast, and filled up the deep gulfs which indented its shores. The southern coast, which consists chiefly of calca reous rocks, upon which the sea reposes, to a great depth, has suffered but few changes, excepting at the mouths of the rivers ; and hence the geographi cal descriptions of this part of the Black Sea, as gi ven by ancient authors, are more easily with modern observations.
From these indications of extensive changes, as • well as from the testimony of ancient authors, it would appear, that the Sea of Aral and the Caspian _Sea once formed an immense lake, joined by a strait to the Palus Meotis and Euxinc Sea ; and that this huge collection of water was separated from the Me. diterranean by a narrow isthmus, formed by the Cy. anean Isles. An eruption of these volcanic islands is supposed to have formed an outlet for the exube rant waters of the Euxine, which rolled its torrent with irresistible impetuosity into the Propontis, and • afterwards into the Mediterranean, and deluged the law plains of Asia Minor, Thrace, Greece, Egypt, and Libya. The effects of this dreadful inundation are recorded in the monuments, the traditions, the poetry, the history, and the chronology of these an cient nations. The Samathracians, according to Dio. dorus (lib. v. cap. 47.,) ascribed this deluge to the opening of the mouth of the Bosphorus. Their fish ermen dragged out, in their nets, the capitals of co lumns that belonged to the cities which had been submerged ; and, in the time of Diodorus, they of fered sacrifices upon altars erected on the line which formed the limits of the inundation. mentions an an-, m cient author quoted by Eustathius, entions some great inundations,, one of which opened the canal of the Hellespont that separated Europe from Asia ; and Strabo and Xanthus bear testimony to the same° event, which seems to have happened about 1529 years before Christ.
We shall now 'proceed to state the evidence in support of this remarkable fact, as collected from the observations of modern naturalists and travel lers.