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celebrated historian (born at Como in 1483) reports that in 1513 at
the foot of the Alps, above Bellinzona, on the road to Switzerland,
a mountain fell with a very great noise, in consequence of an
earthquake, and that the mass of rocks, which fell on the left
(Western) side blocked the river Breno (T. I p. 218 and 345 of D.
Sauvage's French edition, quoted in ALEXIS PERCY, Memoire des
tremblements de terre de la peninsule italique; Academie Royale de
Belgique. T. XXII).--]; a mountain fell seven miles across a valley
and closed it up and made a lake. And thus most lakes have been made
by mountains, as the lake of Garda, the lakes of Como and Lugano,
and the Lago Maggiore. The Mediterranean fell but little on the
confines of Syria, in consequence of the Gaditanean passage, but a
great deal in this passage, because before this cutting was made the
Mediterranean sea flowed to the South East, and then the fall had to
be made by its run through the Straits of Gades.
At a the water of the Mediterranean fell into the ocean.
All the plains which lie between the sea and mountains were formerly
covered with salt water.
Every valley has been made by its own river; and the proportion
between valleys is the same as that between river and river.
The greatest river in our world is the Mediterranean river, which
moves from the sources of the Nile to the Western ocean.
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