I showed Conseil, on the map of the Mediterranean, the spot occupied
by this reef.
"But if you please, sir," observed Conseil, "it is like a real
isthmus joining Europe to Africa."
"Yes, my boy, it forms a perfect bar to the Straits of Lybia,
and the soundings of Smith have proved that in former times
the continents between Cape Boco and Cape Furina were joined."
"I can well believe it," said Conseil.
"I will add," I continued, "that a similar barrier exists between Gibraltar
and Ceuta, which in geological times formed the entire Mediterranean."
"What if some volcanic burst should one day raise these two barriers
above the waves?"
"It is not probable, Conseil."
"Well, but allow me to finish, please, sir; if this phenomenon
should take place, it will be troublesome for M. Lesseps,
who has taken so much pains to pierce the isthmus."
"I agree with you; but I repeat, Conseil, this phenomenon will
never happen. The violence of subterranean force is ever diminishing.
Volcanoes, so plentiful in the first days of the world,
are being extinguished by degrees; the internal heat is weakened,
the temperature of the lower strata of the globe is lowered by a
perceptible quantity every century to the detriment of our globe,
for its heat is its life.
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