This was maintained by M. Bory Saint Vincent, because the vast deserts
of sand, mixed up with the salt and remains of marine animals, of which
the surface of the globe is partly composed, were formerly inland seas,
which have insensibly become dry. The Caspian, the Dead Sea, the Lake
Baikal, &c. will become dry in their turn also, when their beds will
be sandy deserts. The inland seas, whether they have only one outlet,
as the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Baltic, &c., or whether they
have several, as the Gulf of Mexico, the seas of O’Kotsk, of Japan,
China, &c., will at some future time cease to communicate with the
great basins of the ocean; they will become inland seas, true Caspians,
and in due time will become likewise dry. On all sides the waters
of rivers are seen to carry forward in their course the soil of the
continent. Alluvial lands, deltas, banks of sand, form themselves near
the coasts, and in the directions of the currents; madreporic animals
lay the foundations of new lands; and while the straits become closed,
while the depths of the sea fill up, the level of the sea, which it
would seem natural should become higher, is sensibly lower. There is,
therefore, an actual diminution of liquid matter.