Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

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

inquiry into all such as are yet known, or have been described by credible authors, it will appear, that they are much fewer than is commonly imagined, 'not an 100 sorts of beasts, and not 200 of birds.

And yet, out of this number, as small as it is, we must except all animals that are of equivocal generation, as insects; all that are accustomed to live in water, as fish and water-fowl; all that proceed from a mixture of different species, as mules; and all that, by changing their climate, change their colour and size, and so pass for different creatures, when in reality they are the same. We must observe farther, that all creatures of the serpentine kind, the viper, snake, slow-worm, lizard, frog, toad, &c., might have sufficient space for their reception, and for their nourishment in the hold or bottom of the ark, which was probably three or four feet under | the floor, whereon the beasts are supposed to stand: and that the smaller creatures, such as the mouse, rat, mole, &c., might find sufficient room in several parts of the ark, without having any particular places or cells appointed for them: so that the number of the several species of animals to be placed in the first, or lowest story, upon the foot of this deduction, stands thus :

[blocks in formation]

Now, concerning these creatures God gives Noah this injunction; 2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and the female; and of beasts that are not clean, by two, the male and the female. Taking the words then in their highest acceptation, namely, that Noah was to receive into the ark one pair of every species of unclean animals, and seven pair of every species of clean; yet, considering that the species of unclean animals, which were admitted by pairs only, are many in comparison of the clean, and the species of large animals few in comparison of the smaller; we cannot but perceive (as by a short calculation it will appear) that this lower story, which was ten cubits high, three hundred long, and fifty broad, that is, 235,000 solid feet in the whole, would be capable of receiving with all manner of conveniency, not only all the sorts of beasts that we are acquainted with, but probably all those other kinds which are any where to be found under the copes of heaven.

[ocr errors]

given every green herb for meat:' a Nor do there want instances in history of some very ravenous creatures that have been brought to live upon other kind of food than flesh. So that there was no necessity for Noah's providing so many supernumerary sheep (as some would have it) to feed the carnivorous animals for a whole year. * The same divine providence which directed all the animals, of whatever country, to make towards the ark, which took from them their fierceness, and made them tame and gentle upon this occasion, might likewise beget in them a loathing of flesh, (supposing they eat it before,) and an appetite for hay, corn, fruits, or any other eatables that were most obvious in this time of distress. And as they were shut up, and could not spend themselves by motion, but might have their stomachs palled with the continued agitation of the vessel, they may well be supposed to stand in need of less provision than at other times.

If then (to make our computation) we should say, that 5 all the beasts in the lower story of the ark were equal, in their consumption of food, to 300 oxen (which is more by a great deal than some calculations have allowed,) that 30 or 40 pounds of hay are ordinarily sufficient for an ox for one day; and that a solid cubit of hay, well compressed, will weigh about 40 pounds; then will this second story, being of the same dimensions with the other, that is, 225,000 solid feet, not only allow a space for a sufficient quantity of hay, but for other repositories of such fruits, roots, and grain, as might be proper for the nourishment of those animals that live not upon hay ; and for such passages and apertures in the floor as might be necessary for the putting down hay and other provender to the beasts in the lower story.

Upon the whole therefore it appears, that the middle

Heidegger's History of the Patriarchs, Essay 17.

5 Wilkins's Essay, part 2. c. 5.

a It is not to be denied, but that several learned men have taken great pains to provide flesh for the carnivorous animals shut up in the ark, when it is beyond all controversy that the stomachs of that such food would be more salutary both for them and their such animals are fitted for the digestion of fruits and vegetables: keepers, and would create a less demand of drink throughout the course of so long a confinement; and yet there is not the least foundation from the text to suppose, that any such provision was made for creatures of such an appetite, but several instances in history do show, that even the most rapacious of them all may be brought to live upon other diet than flesh. Thus Philostratus, in his Apollonius, b. 5, tells us of a lion in Egypt, which, though it went into the temple constantly, would neither lick the blood of sacrifices, nor eat any of the flesh when it was cut in pieces, but fed altogether on bread and sweet-meats; and Sulpitius Severus [Dial. I. c. 7.] gives us this account of a monk of Thebais.

"When we came to the tree, whither our courteous host led us, we there perceived a lion, at the sight of which I and my guide began to tremble; but as the holy man went directly up to it, we, though in no small fright, followed after. The beast at our approach modestly retired, and stood very quiet and still, while the good man gathered it some branches of apples, and as he held them out, the lion came up and eat them, and so went off." The c. 13, of some lions beyond the river Jordan, whom an Anchorite, named Iberus, fed with pulse and crusts of bread; and to the animals in the ark, feeding in this manner, the prophet Isaiah, speaking of the times of the Messiah, (ch. xi. 6, 7, is supposed by our author to allude. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a Hittle child shall lead them; and the cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw with the ox.'-Heidegger's History of the Patriarchs, Essay 17.

It is a pretty general opinion, and what seems to be founded on Scripture, that before the flood, both men, beasts, and birds fed only upon fruits and vegetables. 3 Behold I have given you every herb,' says God, bear-like story is told by Phocas in his Description of the Holy Land, ing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat; and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life; I have

[blocks in formation]

A. M. 1656. A. C. 2349; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2255. A. C. 3155. GEN. CH. vi. 12. TO ix. 20.

a

story of the ark was likewise large enough to hold all that was requisite to be put therein and as for the third and upper story, there can no manner of doubt be made, but that it was sufficient to hold all the species of birds, even though they were many more than they are generally computed. The accurate Bishop Wilkins a has divided them into nine sorts, and reckons them to be 195 in the whole; but then the greatest part of them are so very small that they might well enough be kept in partitions or cages piled one upon another. The food necessary for their sustenance would not take up any great proportion of room, and the remainder of the story would make a commodious enough habitation for Noah and his family, together with little closets and ofices, wherein to dispose of their several domestic matters and utensils.

| country of Eden is very reasonably supposed by learned men to be next adjacent to the garden of that name, from whence Adam was expelled; and that, as all early accounts of that country point it out to us, as one of the most fruitful and delicious regions in the earth, (though now greatly changed,) there is no reason to imagine that Adam sought for any habitation beyond it. There, according to many concurring circumstances, was this famous ark built; there is gopher-wood (very reasonably supposed to be cypress) found in great abundance; there is asphaltus, wherewith the ark, to defend it from the impression of the waters, was daubed and smeared both within and without; and not far from thence is mount Ararat, where the ark as the waters began to abate, is known to have rested; and in this situation, there is not any reason to imagine, that any one species of animals could be out of Noah's reach. 3 There they were all natives of the same country, and he perhaps, some time before the flood, might have tamed some of every kind, so that, when the deluge came on, they might easily be brought to the ark, and every one ranged in its proper place, before that Noah shut it up.

Upon the whole inquiry then, says the same learned prelate, it does, of the two, appear more difficult to assign a sufficient number and bulk of necessary things to answer the capacity of the ark, than to find sufficient room in it for the convenient reception of them; and thereupon he truly, as well as piously, concludes, "That had the most skilful mathematicians and philoso- But now that they are all shut up, what shall we do for phers been set to consult what proportions a vessel de-air to keep them alive, or for light to direct them in what signed for such an use as the ark was, should have in the they are to do? Mention indeed is made of a window, several parts of it, they could not have pitched upon any left in the upper part of the ark; but this is said to be other more suitable to the purpose than these mentioned no more than a cubit square, and what is this in proporby Moses are; insomuch, that the proportion of the ark tion to so vast a fabric? Either, therefore, we must (from which some weak and atheistical persons have devise some relief for them in this exigence, or we shall made some poor efforts to overthrow the authority of the soon find the poor remains of the creation in utter darksacred Scriptures) does very much tend to confirm and ness, and in the shadow of death. establish the truth and divine authority of them. Especially, if we only consider, that in these days men were less versed in arts and sciences; at least, that the ark was, in all probability, the first vessel of any bulk that was made to go upon the water: whence the justness of the proportion observed in its several parts, and the exact-of it; whether they knew, in the Greek language, any ness of its capacity to the use it was designed for, are reasonably to be ascribed, not to bare human invention and contrivance, but to the divine direction, expressly given to Noah by God himself, as the sacred historian acquaints us."

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

81

4 As the word Zohar, which we render window, is never mentioned in the singular number through the whole compass of the Bible, but only this once, it perhaps may be no very easy thing to find out its true signification. Whether the LXX. interpreters understood the meaning

word capable of expressing it; or whether they might think it of so sacred a nature, as not proper to be published at all; but so it is, that they prudently have omitted it in their translation, and will have the precept or direction, which God gives Noah, to mean no more than that he should finish the ark, by closing it on the top, and compacting it well together.

The word has its original from a verb which signifies to burn, or shine like oil; and indeed wherever it occurs (as it sometimes occurs in the dual number,) it always signifies some bright and luminous body: and accordingly some of the Jewish doctors were of opinion, that this must have been a kind of precious stone or carbuncle, which was hung up in the midst of the ark, to give light all around and to this purpose R. Levi tells us, that 'during the whole 12 months that Noah was shut up in the ark, he needed neither the light of the sun by day, nor the light of the moon by night; for there was a jewel belonging to him which he hung up in the ark; and as it waxed dim, he knew that it was day, but as its lustre was more intense he knew that it was night." But this opinion is not well founded: because such authors as have

[ocr errors]

written best upon the qualities of precious stones, do all

3 Howell's History, vol. 1. b. 1.

'See Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1; Occasional Annotations. L-M

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

or less heat of the sun. In the cold of winter it is much nearer to the earth, than in the warmth of summer; or, (to speak more properly) the cold which reigns in the middle region of the air during the summer, reigns like

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 (as oriental traditions say) was a profound philosopher; who was certainly a person of much longer experience than any later liver can pretend to; (and what is more) was 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 to prepare some perpetual light, which should centrally send forth its rays to all parts of the ark, and by its kind effluviums, cherish every thing that had life in it. Now, if this be allowed, (and this is more consonant to the letter of the text a than any other interpretation that has hitherto been advanced,) then will all the difficulties, which either are, or can be raised about the manner of subsistence, in a close vessel, by creatures of so many different species, vanish immediately. But, if it be not allowed, then it is impossible without admitting a whole 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

tained by Moses, that every one is left to his own conjectures concerning it; and therefore he supposes, that as the ark was divided into three stories, or floors, and the word Zohar, which we translate window, signifies, splendour, light, noon, &c., the whole second story (in which he places the animals) was quite open all round except some parts, which were grated to hinder the birds from flying in and out; otherwise, he cannot conceive how they could have had sufficient light, and air, and a free passage for it, to prevent stagnations, and many other inconveniences which, upon this supposition, would have been removed. The lower story indeed was included within wooden walls, and well guarded with pitch, as being all under water; but the two upper stories, being above water, were either entirely open, or secured with lattices and grates; and the top or open parts, covered with goat skins, or sheep skins, sewed together, as the tabernacle afterwards was, which Noah could easily let down, 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 supposes, that the stalls were so open and shelving at the bottom, that water might have been let in high enough to have washed

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.

[ocr errors]

the deluge then to out-top the highest mountains, it is evident, that the middle region of the air must have risen higher, and removed to a greater distance from the earth and waters; and, on the contrary, that the lower region must have approached nearer to both, in proportion as the waters of the deluge increased or decreased; so that upon the whole, the ark was all alone in the lower region of the air, even when it was carried fifteen cubits above the highest mountains; and the men and beasts which were enclosed in it, breathed the same air, as they would have done on earth, a thousand or twelve hundred paces

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 invention of our present horological machines indeed, and particularly of the pendulum watch, (which is the most exact corrector of time,) is but of modern date; but it does not therefore follow, but that the same or other equivalent pieces of art might, in former ages, have been perfectly known to some great men. Suppose that Mr Huygens, or some other, was the inventor of pendulums in these parts of the world, yet it is more than probable, that there was a pendulum clock made many years before at Florence, by the direction of the great Galileo; and that, long before that, there was another at Prague, which the famous Tycho Brahe made use of, in his astronomical observations. And therefore, unless we fondly imagine, that we postdiluvians have all the wit and ingenuity that ever was, we cannot but think, that Noah, who 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 '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,

3

Natural History.

(SUPPLEMENTAL BY THE EDITOR.)

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 dis-2 will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy. tant parts of the West Indies, which (as far as we can He will dash them one against another, even father and find) are joined to no other part of the known world, and son together, and cause his fury to rest upon them, yet have creatures peculiar, and such as cannot live in until his anger be accomplished.' 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 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 them both perish; but the case would not be so, if they were to be removed by insensible degrees, nearer to these places; nor can we say, that there never were such creatures 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.

"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.”

1. Of the reality of this mighty deluge, we have universal evidence. Nearly the whole table lands, and gentle acclivities of the mountains, are covered with deposits of gravel and loam, to the production of which 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.

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 "In the whole course of my geological travels," says and in earth; for as his will is not to be controlled, so nei-Dr Buckland," from Cornwall to Caithness, from Calais ther 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 dispersion of nations in our next book.

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 of drifted masses of rocks, the greater part of the norrespect to the still more striking diluvial phenomenon thern 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

[blocks in formation]

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, by a force of water, which must have possessed a velocity to which nothing that occurs in the actual state of the globe affords the slightest parallel."

are composed of secondary shell-limestones, which surpass the granite, gneiss, and mica slates, in elevation, and may have been deposited over the primitive rocks 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 con- mineral formations, and newer than even the tertiary tinents which have been explored. They abound at great strata. Hence they are contemporaneous with the elevations, rising to the loftiest summits of the Pyrenees, deluge, indicating at once its transcendent causes and nearly 11,000 feet above the level of our present ocean, effects. In support of this conclusion, M. Deluc, of and to still loftier points in the Andes. It is remarkable Geneva, published in the memoirs of the Physical Sothat the true geographical summits of the Pyrenee ridge | ciety of that city for May, 1827, a similar opinion;

« AnteriorContinua »