I am not aware
that there is the smallest ground for the assumption that the
AEgean land was broken up in consequence of any of the
"catastrophes" which are so commonly invoked.<12> For anything
that appears to the contrary, the narrow, steep-sided, straits
between the islands of the AEgean archipelago may have been
originally brought about by ordinary atmospheric and stream
action; and may then have been filled from the Mediterranean,
during a slow submergence proceeding from the south northwards.
The strait of the Dardanelles is bounded by undisturbed
pleistocene strata forty feet thick, through which, to all
appearance, the present passage has been quietly cut.
That Olympus and Ossa were torn asunder and the waters of the
Thessalian basin poured forth, is a very ancient notion, and an
often cited "confirmation" of Deucalion's flood. It has not yet
ceased to be in vogue, apparently because those who entertain it
are not aware that modern geological investigation has
conclusively proved that the gorge of the Penens is as typical
an example of a valley of erosion as any to be seen in Auvergne
or in Colorado.<13>
Thus, in the immediate vicinity of the vast expanse of country
which can be proved to have been untouched by any catastrophe
before, during, and since the "glacial epoch," lie the great
areas of the AEgean and the Red Sea, in which, during or since
the glacial epoch, changes of the relative positions of land and
sea have taken place, in comparison with which the submergence
of Moel Tryfaen, with all Wales and Scotland to boot, does not
come to much.
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