The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

370 RUSSIA E\ T EUKOPE.south, and representing the extremities of radii diverging from a common centre,which would seem to have been in the middle of the Ponto-Caspian isthmus.This disposition can be explained only by a rapid lowering of the waters eastwards,caused doubtless by the separation of the Caspian from the Euxine basin. Whenthe rupture of the Bosphorus caused the " divide " to emerge, the Cas2)ian, at thattime twice its presentsize, was suddenly deprived of a portion of the waters thathad hitherto flowed to the common Ponto-Caspian basin. Hence the contributionsof the Volga and its other influents no longer sufficing to repair the losses causedby evaporation, it was doubtless soon reduced to half its former size, and the suddensubsidence produced by erosion those narrow lagoons still dotted over the Volgadelta and adjacent coast lands.The Caspian Sea.The modifications of outline caused by the alluvia of the Volga, of the Terek, andof its other affluents are consequently insignificant compared with the vast changes inremote times produced in the form of the Caspian basin. The appearance of theuncovered lands, the shells embedded in the soil, and the marine animals stillliving in its waters leave no doubt as to the former extension of this inland sea.There can no longer be any doubt that it formerly communicated either simultaneouslyor at different epochs both with the Euxine and Arctic Ocean. Hence,although now completely land-locked, it may be regarded as geologically formingportion of a vast strait flowing between the continents of Europe and Asia.The parting line between the two seas is clearly indicated by nature itself.The river Kalaus, rising in the chalk beds at the northern foot of the Caucasusabout midway between the two seas, flows first northwards towards the depressionleft by the old Ponto-Caspian strait, here ramifying into numerous branches, someof which are lost in the sands, while others trend eastwards to the Kurna andCaspian. But during the spring and autumn floods a portion of its surplus watersfinds its way westwards to Lake Alanich, and thence from tarn to tarn to the Mediterraneanbasin. Thus the two main branches of the Kalaus, known as the Eastand West Manich, form a temporary channel between the two seas, intermittent lyreplacing the old strait.The question arises whether it might not be possible to restore the communicationin such a way as to allow of large vessels passing uninterruptedly fromGibraltar to Asterabad, or even by the old bed of the Oxus to the foot of theCentral Asiatic highlands. In any case it seems no longer possible to cut acanal across the Ponto-Caspian isthmus free of locks, so thatto connect the Sea ofAzov with the Caspian would be a far more gigantic undertaking than thepiercing of the Isthmus of Suez, with incomparably less commercial prospects.The water-parting being some 80 or 86 feet above the level of the Sea of Azov, andconsequently about170 feet above that of the Caspian, the cuttings for a canal nomore than 10 feet deep would be amongst the deepest ever executed, amounting toat least 130 feet for a distance of over 30 miles.But a canal with locks adapted to