A. M. 1656. A. C. 2349; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2256. A. C. 3155. GEN. CH. vi. 12. TO ix. 20.

agree, that (whatever the ancients may say,) there is no such thing as a night-shining carbuncle to be found in

nature.

ed air) might correct and sweeten all noxious vapours, and exhalations; and, like the sun, send such a vivifying light, that nothing should die that was within the ark, that is, so far as the beams thereof did reach.

Thus we have rescued Noah and his family from the danger of suffocation in their confinement, by the supply of a vicarious light to purify the air and dispel all vapours, as well as enable them to go about their work: but now that the waves swell, and the vessel mounts on high, even above the top of the highest hills under heaven, they run into another quite different danger, namely, that of being starved to death, amidst the colds, and extreme subtilty of the air, in the middle region, wherein no creature can live. 'But the middle region of the air, we ought to remember, is not to be looked upon as a fixed point, which never either rises or falls. It is, with re

That it is possible to make a self-shining substance, either liquid or solid, the hermetical phosphor of Balduinus, the aerial and glacial noctilucas of Mr Boyle, and several other preparations of the like sort, together with the observations of the most accurate philosophers upon the production and propagation of light, and the prodigious ejaculation of insensible effluviums, are sufficient demonstration. The most surprising substance of this kind was the pantarba of Jarchus, "which shone in the day as fire, or as the sun, and at night, did discover a flame or light, as bright as day, though not altogether so strong; which was, in short, of that fiery and radiant nature, that if any one looked on it in the daytime, it would dazzle the eyes with innumerable gleams and cor-spect to us, more or less elevated, according to the greater uscations;" nor can we well doubt but that Noah, who or less heat of the sun. In the cold of winter it is much (as oriental traditions say) was a profound philosopher; nearer to the earth, than in the warmth of summer; or, who was certainly a person of much longer experience (to speak more properly) the cold which reigns in the than any later liver can pretend to; (and what is more) middle region of the air during the summer, reigns likewas under the peculiar favour and direction of God, per-wise in the lower region during the winter. Supposing ceiving the necessity of the thing, should be equally able the deluge then to out-top the highest mountains, it is to prepare some perpetual light, which should centrally evident, that the middle region of the air must have risen send forth its rays to all parts of the ark, and by its kind higher, and removed to a greater distance from the earth effluviums, cherish every thing that had life in it. Now, and waters; and, on the contrary, that the lower region if this be allowed, (and this is more consonant to the must have approached nearer to both, in proportion as letter of the text a than any other interpretation that has the waters of the deluge increased or decreased; so that hitherto been advanced,) then will all the difficulties, upon the whole, the ark was all alone in the lower region which either are, or can be raised about the manner of of the air, even when it was carried fifteen cubits above subsistence, in a close vessel, by creatures of so many the highest mountains; and the men and beasts which different species, vanish immediately. But, if it be not were enclosed in it, breathed the same air, as they would allowed, then it is impossible without admitting a whole have done on earth, a thousand or twelve hundred paces train of miracles, to give the least account, how respira-lower, had not the deluge happened. tion, nutrition, motion, or any other animal function whatever, could be performed in a vessel so closely shut up; and therefore it is the safest to conclude that, according to the divine direction, there must have been something placed in the ark, which by its continual emanation, might both purify and invigorate the includ

a P. Lamy, to evade some difficulties that he could not so well solve, tells us, that the form of the ark, is so little ascer

But during this whole course of the ark, since Noah was shut up in so close a place, where he was not capable of making any observations, where indeed he could see neither sun, moon, nor stars, for many months, it may very well be wondered, how he could possibly have any just mensuration of time, had we not reason to suppose, that he certainly had within the ark a chronometer of one kind or other, which did exactly answer to the motion of the heavens without. The in

tained by Moses, that every one is left to his own conjectures vention of our present horological machines indeed, and concerning it; and therefore he supposes, that as the ark was divided into three stories, or floors, and the word Zohar, which particularly of the pendulum watch, (which is the most we translate window, signifies, splendour, light, noon, &c., the exact corrector of time,) is but of modern date; but it whole second story (in which he places the animals) was quite does not therefore follow, but that the same or other open all round except some parts, which were grated to hinder the birds from flying in and out; otherwise, he cannot conceive equivalent pieces of art might, in former ages, have been how they could have had sufficient light, and air, and a free perfectly known to some great men. Suppose that Mr passage for it, to prevent stagnations, and many other in- Huygens, or some other, was the inventor of pendulums conveniences which, upon this supposition, would have been in these parts of the world, yet it is more than probable, removed. The lower story indeed was included within wooden walls, and well guarded with pitch, as being all under water; but that there was a pendulum clock made many years the two upper stories, being above water, were either entirely before at Florence, by the direction of the great Galileo ; open, or secured with lattices and grates; and the top or open and that, long before that, there was another at Prague, parts, covered with goat skins, or sheep skins, sewed together, as which the famous Tycho Brahe made use of, in his astrothe tabernacle afterwards was, which Noah could easily let down, nomical observations. And therefore, unless we fondly or roll up, according as rain, or storm, or a want of air, made it necessary. And then, as for keeping the beasts clean, he sup-imagine, that we postdiluvians have all the wit and ingeposes, that the stalls were so open and shelving at the bottom,nuity that ever was, we cannot but think, that Noah, who that water might have been let in high enough to have washed not only had long experience himself, but succeeded to the inventions of above 1600 years, which, considering the longevity of people then, were much better preserved

the feet of the cattle, and to have cleansed the stalls of itself.

See his Introduction to the Holy Scriptures, b. 1. c. 3; and Bedford's Scripture Chronology, c. xi. But all this is pure imagination, and inconsistent with the notion which the sacred history gives us of it.

'See Calmet's Dictionary on the word Deluge.

A. M. 1656. A. C. 2349; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2256. A. C. 3155. GEN. CH. vi. 12. TO ix. 20. than they can be now,) was provided with horological | in mercy, shut up Noah in the ark, that he should not see pieces of various kinds, before he entered the ark. Or, the terrors and consternations of sinners when the flood if we can suppose him destitute of these, yet what came; and he washed away all the dead bodies into the we have said of the zohar, is enough to evince, that by caverns of the earth, with all the remains of their old habithe observation of that alone, there could be no difficulty tations. So that when Noah came out of the ark, he saw in distinguishing the nights from the days, and keeping a nothing to disturb his imagination, nor any tokens of that journal accordingly. terrible vengeance which had over run the world, to offend his sight: only, when he looked about him, and saw every thing gone, he could not but fall into this contemplation, that God, 'when he enters into judgment with the wicked, will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy. He will dash them one against another, even father and 3 and cause his fury to rest upon them, son together, until his anger be accomplished.'

But now, that the flood subsides, and the ark is landed, and all its inhabitants are to disembark, how can we suppose, that several of the animals shall be able to find their way from the mountains of Armenia, into the distant parts of the West Indies, which (as far as we can find) are joined to no other part of the known world, and yet have creatures peculiar, and such as cannot live in any other climate? This is a question that we must own ourselves ignorant of, 'in the same manner, as we pretend not to say, by what means that vast continent was at

:

Natural History.

(SUPPLEMENTAL BY THE EDITOR.)

"I CONCLUDE," says the illustrious Cuvier, "that if there be a fact well established in geology, it is this, that the surface of our globe has suffered a great and sudden revolution, the period of which cannot be dated farther back, than five or six thousand years. This revolution has, on the one hand, engulphed and caused to disappear, the countries formerly inhabited by men, and the animal species at present best known; and on the other, has laid bare the bottom of the last ocean, thus converting its channel into the now habitable earth."

first peopled. But by what method soever it was that its CHAP. III.-The Reality of the Deluge proved from first inhabitants came thither, whether by stress of weather, or designed adventure, by long voyages by sea, or (supposing a passage between one continent and another) by long journeyings by land, it is plain, that by the same means, some creatures at first might have been conveyed thither and as their number at that time could be but small, we may suppose that, by a promiscuous copulation with one another, they might beget a second sort, which in process of time, the nature and temperature of the climate might so far alter, as to make them pass for a quite different species, and so affect their constitution as to make them live not so commodiously in any other climate. To convey either men or beasts, all on a sudden, from the warmest parts of Africa, to the coldest places in the north, would be a probable means to make 1. Of the reality of this mighty deluge, we have unithem both perish; but the case would not be so, if they versal evidence. Nearly the whole table lands, and were to be removed by insensible degrees, nearer to these gentle acclivities of the mountains, are covered with places; nor can we say, that there never were such crea-deposits of gravel and loam, to the production of which tures in those parts of Asia, where Noah is thought to have lived, as are now to be found in America; because it is very well known, that formerly there have been many beasts of a particular species in some countries, such as the hippopotami in Egypt, wolves in England, and beavers in France, where at present there are few or none of them to be found.

If, after all, it should be asked, why God made use of this, rather than any other method, to destroy the wicked, and preserve the righteous? the proper answer is, that whatever pleaseth him, that hath he done, both in heaven and in earth; for as his will is not to be controlled, so neither is it to be disputed. For argument's sake, however, let us suppose, for once, that instead of drowning the world, God had been pleased to destroy by plague, famine, or some other sore judgment, all mankind, except Noah and his sons, who were to be eye-witnesses of this terrible execution, to live to see the earth covered with dead bodies, and none left to bury them, the fields uncultivated, and the cities lie waste and desolate without inhabitants, who can conceive what the horror of such a sight would have been? And who would have been content to live in such a world, to converse only with the images of death, and with noisome carcasses? But God,

See Universal History. Of this, however, we shall give the conjectures of the learned, when we come to treat of the disperson of nations in our next book.

no cause now seen in action is adequate, and which can therefore be referred only to the waters of a sudden and transient deluge. It is from this circumstance that the deposit alluded to is termed diluvium by geologists. In it, the pebbles and loam are always promiscuously blended, whereas among the regular secondary and tertiary strata, they occur separate in alternate beds. On the contrary, the marl, sand, and gravel deposited by existing rivers and lakes, or plains exposed to occasional inundation, is called alluvium.

"In the whole course of my geological travels," says Dr Buckland," from Cornwall to Caithness, from Calais to the Carpathians, in Ireland or in Italy, I have scarcely ever gone a mile, without finding a perpetual succession of deposits of gravel, sand, or loam, in situations that cannot be referred to the action of modern torrents, rivers, or lakes, or any other existing causes; and with respect to the still more striking diluvial phenomenon of drifted masses of rocks, the greater part of the northern hemisphere, from Moscow to the Mississippi, is described by various geological travellers, as strewed on its hills, as well as valleys, with blocks of granite and other rocks of enormous magnitude, which have been drifted, mostly in a direction from north to south, a distance, sometimes, of many hundred miles from their

A. M. 1656. A. C. 2349; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2256. A. C. 3155. GEN. CH. vi. 12. TO ix. 20. native beds, across mountains and valleys, lakes and seas, are composed of secondary shell-limestones, which surby a force of water, which must have possessed a velo- pass the granite, gneiss, and mica slates, in elevation, city to which nothing that occurs in the actual state of and may have been deposited over the primitive rocks the globe affords the slightest parallel." while they stood under the primeval ocean.

In addition to this, it may be remarked, that on the

According to the theory of Hutton, the mountains of a former earth, were worn down and diffused over the bot-secondary mountains of the Jura, particularly the slopes tom of a former ocean. There they were exposed to the power of subjacent internal fire; and after due induration were heaved up by the explosive violence of the same force, into the inclined or nearly vertical positions, in which the great mountain strata now stand. "How often," says Mr Playfair, in his eloquent illustrations of this theory, "these vicissitudes of decay and renovation have been repeated, is not for us to determine; they constitute a series, which, as the author of this theory has remarked, we neither see the beginning nor the end."

This theory is now demonstrated to be a mere phantom. The circumstance that gneiss and mica slate, allowed to be primitive rocks, and to have been formed, as the Huttonians suppose, at the bottom of the sea, by the same process as the calcarious and other secondary strata that are full of shells; the circumstance that gneiss and mica slate are barren of animal exuviæ, proves the falsehood of this theory. Whence do these organic ruins come, and why are they absent in the former class of rocks, both of them formed in the same sea, and under similar circumstances?

facing the Alps, a great many loose fragments of primitive rocks are strewed over the surface, at heights of 2,500 feet above the Lake of Geneva. They have undoubtedly travelled across the line of these valleys, their composition proving clearly the mountain ridges from which they came. We may hence infer, that at the period of their transfer from the Savoy Alps, the Lake of Geneva did not exist, otherwise they must have remained at its bottom, instead of being found on its opposite bounding mountain at a great elevation. This, and similar facts indicate the scooping out of the valleys between the mountains, by the pressure of the diluvial deflux. Analogous phenomena abound in England. There are found among the diluvial strata of England large blocks and pebbles, the fragments of various primitive and transition rocks, which Dr Buckland supposes to have been drifted from the nearest continental strata of Norway.

"The Alps and Carpathians, and all the other mountain regions I ever visited in Europe," says this respectable writer, "bear in the form of their component hills the same evidence of having been modified by the force The Huttonians ascribe the excavation of every great of water, as do the hills of the lower regions of the valley on the globe, to the disintegrating power of the earth; and in their valleys also, where there was space stream or river by which they have been traversed. But to afford it a lodgment, I have always found diluvial this is often a mere thread compared to the sloping width gravel of the same nature and origin with that of the of the valley, and should, at the utmost, have produced plains below, and which can be clearly distinguished merely a narrow and precipitous glen. The observed from the postdiluvian detritus of mountain torrents or action of streamlets is rather to fill up the dell through rivers. The bones of the Mastodon are found in diluvial which it glides, than to enlarge its dimensions. An gravel in the Camp de Geans in South America, 7,800 feet example will hardly be found of a valley, which can be above the level of the sea; and in the Cordilleras at an legitimately ascribed to the action of the stream that is elevation of 7,200 feet, near the volcano of Imbaburra, seen passing through it. This is not the place to enlarge in the kingdom of Quito. M. Humboldt found a tooth on this subject. Suffice it to remark, that even though of an extinct species of fossil elephant at Hue-huetoca, the lands adjoining the valleys were composed of loose on the plain of Mexico. Our high mountains in Europe matter; the waters now running along the bottom, could are so peaked that animal remains, though drifted round not have scooped out the valleys, supposing them to have their summits, could hardly be expected to lie upon a tenfold force, above what they actually possess; the them, but would be washed down their steep slopes. In slope of the existing surface not being sufficiently great central Asia, bones of horses and deer which were found to give these masses of water the rapidity requisite to at a height of 16,000 feet above the sea, in the Himmala produce that effect, and to carry off the loose soil which mountains, are now deposited at the Royal College of filled either the valley or the gorge. Finally, the actual Surgeons in London. These facts attest, that all the waters, so far from having contributed to form the long high hills that were under the whole heavens were and numerous depressions which furrow the surface of covered by the waters of the deluge." the earth, continually tend to fill up these hollows. In It is now maintained by geologists of the highest short, to the production of the great valleys of the globe eminence, that the rounded blocks of granite to which I no cause now seen in action is adequate, and they can have alluded as spread over the Jura and neighbouring be referred only to the waters of a sudden and mighty countries, were rolled into their present situations at the deluge. time of the rising from below of Mont Blanc and the The reality of this universal catastrophe is attested by Alpine mountains, to which they belong in composition the fact, that rocks replete with marine remains are spread-mountains considered by Von Buch as the latest of all over two-thirds of the surface of every part of our continents which have been explored. They abound at great elevations, rising to the loftiest summits of the Pyrenees, nearly 11,000 feet above the level of our present ocean, and to still loftier points in the Andes. It is remarkable that the true geographical summits of the Pyrenee ridge

mineral formations, and newer than even the tertiary strata. Hence they are contemporaneous with the deluge, indicating at once its transcendent causes and effects. In support of this conclusion, M. Deluc, of Geneva, published in the memoirs of the Physical Society of that city for May, 1827, a similar opinion;

A. M. 1656. A. C. 2319; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2256. A. C. 3155. GEN. CH. vi. 12. TO ix. 20. that the Alpine ridges have been formed after the tertiary rocks; and that the blocks of granite have been dispersed by that mighty upheaving of the land. The great masses remain nearest the parent mountains, and being least travelled, are more angular; the smaller and lighter ones, having been proportionally more violently agitated, and rolled to greater distances, have become rounded by the attrition.

In the stratum of mingled sand and gravel, which forms the detritus of the deluge, and to which the name diluvium has been given, are usually found the fossil bones of ancient animals. Skeletons, or their parts, have been also discovered in great numbers in the limestone caves of this and many other countries, which are supposed with much probability, to have been the dens of antediluvian animals, the last tenants of which were drowned in the universal deluge. The species so common in the diluvial detritus, namely, the elephants, the rhinoceroses, the horses, are very rare in the bone caves of Germany. In this respect, the Kirkdale cave in Yorkshire differs widely from the others, since it abounds as much in the bones of the great and little herbivorous animals as those of the carnivorous. The elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, are found at Kirkdale; as well as bones of oxen, deer, down to rats and birds. No marine animals of any species have left their bones either in the Kirkdale or German caves.

be a proper and useful subject of inquiry, since we know that God usually accomplishes his purposes by means or second causes; and especially since such inquiry may enable us to answer objections and remove difficulties. At the same time, it should be remembered that even though we were incapable of assigning any secondary causes for the production of the deluge, the evidence for the reality of this event would not be thereby affected. All power is God's; and whatsoe'er he wills, the will itself omnipotent fulfils.

The theory which appears to me to come nearest the truth on this subject is that which ascribes the phenomena of the deluge to the operation of forces acting under the bottom of the primeval ocean by which its waters were rolled over the ancient continents, many of which were broken down and sunk in the sea, whilst new territories were upheaved and laid bare. Sir H. Davy's discovery of the metallic bases of the earths and alkalis proves that such latent forces do exist in the bosom of the earth; and from the phenomena of volcanoes we may form some conjecture of their tremendous power. The metals of the alkalis and earths, from their affinity for oxygen, could not possibly exist on the surface of the earth; on this principle, volcanic fires would be occasioned whenever these metals were extensively exposed to the action of air and water.

The upheaving of the bed of the ocean, and the depression of the dry land, would occasion the deluge. When the barriers of the ocean began to give way before the explosive forces, the water would invade the shores, and spread over the sunken land, augmenting greatly the evaporating surface, and thus bringing the atmosphere to the dew-point, a state of saturation to which, previously, it could seldom, and in few places, attain, on account of the area of the dry land being great, relative to that of the sea. From this cause, as well as from the immense quantity of vapours which are known to rise from water, into the higher and cooler regions of the air, at the period of eruptions, a great formation of cloud and deposition of rain would ensue.

There are only three general causes which can be possibly imagined to have introduced the bones in such quantities into these vast subterranean vaults; first, they are either the remains of animals which dwelt and died peaceably in these chambers; or, second, of animals | which inundations and other violent causes carried in: or, third, of the animals which had been enveloped in the stony strata, whose watery solution produced the caverns themselves, but the soft parts were dissolved away by the agent that scooped out the mineral substance of the caves. This last hypothesis is refuted by the circumstance, that the strata themselves in which the grottoes are excavated contains no bones; and the second, by the entire state of preservation of the smallest At each successive upheaving of the submarine strata, prominences of the bones, which precludes the idea of the inundation would advance farther on the land, their having been rolled. Even if some bones are worn drowning in their places the animals which had been smooth, as Dr Buckland has remarked, they are so only driven for shelter into their dens; and washing away by on one side; which at the utmost merely proves that its reflux, the tenants of the plains, into the slimy something has polished their surface in the bed where channel of the deep. By such a retiring billow in the they lay. We are therefore compelled to resume the dreadful earthquake of 1755, three thousand inhabitants first supposition, and to regard these caverns as the dens of Lisbon were suddenly swept off its quay, and swamped of antediluvian carnivora, which dragged in thither and in the bed of the Tagus. In the progress of the elevadevoured the animals, or parts of animals, that fell in tion of submarine strata, and submersion of what previtheir way. Professor Buckland's writings furnish nu-ously had been dry land, the stage of equilibrium would merous proofs and illustrations of the truth of this position.

These few observations may suffice to illustrate the nature and extent of that evidence which is furnished by science in proof of the reality of the mighty deluge mentioned in the Mosaic record. The works of Cuvier, Buckland, and Dr Ure's New System of Geology, will put the student in possession of the means of enlarging his knowledge of this highly interesting subject. I shall now advert

II. To what may have been supposed to have been the physical cause of this catastrophe. This, I conceive, to

arrive, when the circumfluent waves would roll over the loftiest pinnacles of the globe. The destruction of the human race, with the exception of the eight individuals enclosed in the ark, would thus be completed.

According to the principles of Mr Penn, the ratio of land to water was inverted by the deluge, for he assumes that our actual seas correspond in surface to the antediluvian lands; and our actual lands to the antediluvian seas. But the researches of Professor Buckland on the Kirkdale and Franconia caves; as well as those of Baron Cuvier on the grotto of Oiselles, concur to prove that these were dens inhabited by antediluvian quadru

A. M. 1656. A. C. 2349; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2256. A. C. 3155. GEN. CH. vi. 12. TO ix. 20.

peds, and therefore must have formed a portion of its dry land.

I am disposed then to consider volcanic agency as a main cause of the phenomena of the deluge. This power has now a limited range in comparison of its ancient extent. There are at present two hundred and five burning volcanoes on the globe. One hundred and seven of these are in islands, and ninety-eight on continents, but ranged mostly along their shores. The American volcanoes are among those most distant from the sea. In Peru, they are about seventy miles from it. The position of all our active volcanoes in the neighbourhood of the ocean, is a very striking fact. It becomes much more so when we observe submarine volcanoes burning in the very bosom of the sea.

The most remarkable volcano ever described is in the island of Hawii. It is near the base of Mouna Roa, a mountain 15,000 feet high. An interesting account of it is given by Mr Ellis in his Polynesian Researches. "A whole lake of fire was seen to open suddenly up, in a part at a little distance. This lake could not have been less than two miles in circumference, and its action was more horribly sublime, than any thing I ever imagined to exist, even in the idler visions of unearthly things. Its surface had all the agitation of an ocean. Billow after billow tossed its monstrous bosom into the air, and occasionally the waves from opposite directions met with such violence, as to dash the fiery spray in the concussion forty or fifty feet high."

In order to produce the deluge it was only necessary that the Creator should remove restraints from those forces which actually exist in the earth. These forces under the direction of infinite wisdom, operating in the manner already described, seem to be sufficient to verify the account of this mighty catastrophe recorded by Moses. 'The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.' I shall now consider

III. The alleged objections to the truth of the Mosaic account of the deluge. I shall only here advert to those which relate to natural phenomena.

1. While the bones of the lower animals have been found abundantly in the diluvium and caves of the earth, in no instance have the remains of man been discovered. Human bones moulder as slowly in the earth as those of the inferior tribes; yet not one of them has been found of a truly fossil character. This circumstance is felt by many as a difficulty; and is regarded by some as furnishing an objection to the reality of the deluge.

The two following considerations furnish a satisfactory solution of this difficulty. First, that the greater part, if not the whole of the portion of the earth which was inhabited by the human race prior to the deluge, is now at the bottom of the ocean. It is admitted by all, that part of the antediluvian earth is now submersed. It is equally certain that mankind had occupied but a comparatively small part of the globe. From the prodigious herds of wild beasts which prowled through these northern regions, it is confidently inferred that human society was not established there. Indeed the only authentic data from which we can form any conclusion on the subject

lead to the belief that primeval population had not rapidly advanced. The average period which each of the primeval patriarchs lived before his eldest son was born, was 117 years. Judging from these data, the only ones we have, the increase of population must have been slow; divine mercy limiting the victims of guilt and perdition. Multiplying in this ratio, the race of man could not spread widely over the world, thinned as the members must also have been by mutual violence.

It is highly probable that the portion of the earth inhabited by the family of man is now at the bottom of the sea; especially as we know from the physical constitution of the globe, as well as from principles already alluded to, that at least a great part of the bed of the antediluvian ocean is now dry land, and that, consequently, the dry land of the primeval world is, to a considerable extent, at the bottom of the sea.

A second consideration is, that mankind was confined to Asia and the east prior to the deluge; and that the interior of the earth in those parts of the world, have not yet been explored. It is only of course in those portions of the earth which were inhabited by the antediluvians that we are to look for traces of their former existence; and on the supposition that the sea does not now cover all the early dwelling places of the race, we are certain that they have not yet undergone a particular examination.

2. The change in regard to the longevity of man said to be introduced at the deluge is calculated, it is alleged, to awaken suspicion in regard to the truth of the Mosaic account of that catastrophe. Prior to that era men lived to the age of seven, eight, or nine hundred years; but immediately after, the period of human life was greatly shortened. How are we to account for so great a change?

It is a sufficient solution of this difficulty to say, that the Great Author and Lord of life can limit its duration as it pleaseth him. Without presuming to say, whether the changes which the deluge produced on the globe were sufficient, as natural causes, to shorten the mortal existence of man, it is certain that such a revolution was effected in the constitution of our globe, as rendered its surface much colder and moister than it had previously been. From the circumstances which fully establish this position we may select the two following.

First, the almost incredible number of bones of fossil elephants found in northern Siberia, which indicate no marks of having been rolled or transported from a distance, attest the existence formerly on its plains, of huge herbivorous animals. These demonstrate that a vigorous vegetation clothed countries now covered with frost a great part of the year, when even in summer sterilizing cold and humidity perpetually reign, and where at present the rein-deer can hardly pick up from beneath the snow its scanty mouthful of moss. Pallas informs us that in those northern regions there is scarcely a river, on the banks of which, bones of the ancient elephant may not be found. They are imbedded in, or loosely covered with diluvial matter, intermixed with a few marine productions. The immense supply of food requisite to the sustenance of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the mastodon, and the tapir, could only be produced in a warm climate.