Indeed, the volume of water
in the Mediterranean, incessantly added to by the waves of the Atlantic
and by rivers falling into it, would each year raise the level of this sea,
for its evaporation is not sufficient to restore the equilibrium.
As it is not so, we must necessarily admit the existence of an under-current,
which empties into the basin of the Atlantic through the Straits
of Gibraltar the surplus waters of the Mediterranean. A fact indeed;
and it was this counter-current by which the Nautilus profited.
It advanced rapidly by the narrow pass. For one instant I caught a glimpse
of the beautiful ruins of the temple of Hercules, buried in the ground,
according to Pliny, and with the low island which supports it; and a few
minutes later we were floating on the Atlantic.
CHAPTER VIII
VIGO BAY
The Atlantic! a vast sheet of water whose superficial area covers
twenty-five millions of square miles, the length of which is nine
thousand miles, with a mean breadth of two thousand seven hundred--
an ocean whose parallel winding shores embrace an immense circumference,
watered by the largest rivers of the world, the St.
Pages:
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341