Note 22 — Chapter I · THE STRAITS OF GIBRALTAR.

“How different would have been the present state of temperature, of vegetation, of agriculture, and even of human society, if the major axes of the old and new continents had been given the same direction; if the chain of the Andes, instead of following a meridian, had been directed from east to west; if no heat-radiating mass of tropical land extended to the south of Europe; or if the Mediterranean, which was once in connection both with the Caspian and Red Sea, and which has so powerfully favoured the social establishment of nations, were not in existence; that is to say, if its bed had been raised to the level of the plains of Lombardy and of the ancient Cyrene.”—Cosmos, vol. i. p. 205.