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THE

AMERICAN

BIBLICAL REPOSITORY.

NO. XXIX.

JANUARY, 1838.

ARTICLE I.

THE HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL DELUGES COMPARED.

By Edward Hitchcock, Prof. of Chem, and Nat. Hist. Amherst College.
[Concluded from p. 374. Vol. X.]

THERE is one other branch of the argument for a deluge from diluvial phenomena, which we must not pass in entire silence. It is derived from an examination of the contents of certain caverns and fissures. We can, however, give but a very brief view of it; although to make it well understood, requires a volume. And happily that volume has been written. We refer to Dr. Buckland's Reliquiae Diluvianae.*

In the Repository for January 1837, we expressed doubts as to what were the real opinions of Dr. Buckland at present respecting the geological evidence of a deluge; or rather, how far his opinions, as given in his Reliquiae, had been modified. On receiving his Bridgewater Treatise, we found that he had not abandoned the opinion that there has been a recent inundation of the earth, as shown by geology: but he doubts whether its identity with the Noachian deluge can be made out. The following are his views-"The evidence which 1 have collected in my Reliquiae Diluvianae, 1823, shows that one of the last great physical events that have affected the surface of our globe was a violent inundation which overwhelmed a great part of the northern hemisphere, and that this event was followed by the sudden disappearance of a large number of the species of terrestrial quadruVOL. XI. No. 29.

1

In 1821, the attention of Dr. Buckland was called to the contents of a cavern in limestone, in Yorkshire, that had recently been opened and found to contain numerous peculiar bones. He found this cavern to contain on its floor the following substances. At the bottom was a coating of stalagmite, or concreted limestone, that had dripped from the roof; then succeeded a layer of mud, which contained, as did also the stalagmite beneath it, numerous fragments of the bones of animals, most of them extinct. Above the mud was a second layer of stalagmite, destitute of bones; and the cavern appeared to have been closed since the period when the mud was introduced; the lower stalagmite having been deposited previous to that time, and the upper stalagmite subsequently. More than twenty species of animals were made out from these relics; and they were mostly tropical animals. From all the facts in the case, which were examined with great care by Prof. Buckland, he made several very important inferences: First, that this cave peds, which had inhabited these regions in the period immediately preceding it. I also ventured to apply the name Diluvium, to the superficial beds of gravel, clay and sand which appear to have been produced by this great irruption of water. The description of the facts that form the evidence presented in this volume, is kept distinct from the question of the identity of the event attested by them, with any deluge recorded in history. Discoveries which have been made, since the publication of this work, show that many of the animals therein described, existed during more than one geological period preceding the catastrophe by which they were extirpated. Hence it seems more probable, that the event in question was the last of the many geological revolutions that have been produced by violent irruptions of water, rather than the comparatively tranquil inundation described in the Inspired Narrative. It has been justly argued, against the attempt to identify these two great historical and natural phenomena, that as the rise and fall of the waters of the Mosaic deluge are described to have been gradual, and of short duration, they would have produced comparatively little change on the surface of the country they overflowed. The large preponderance of extinct species among the animals we find in caves, and in superficial deposits of diluvium, and the new discovery of human bones along with them afford other strong reasons for referring these species to a period anterior to the creation of man. This important point however cannot be considered as completely settled, till more detailed investigations of the newest members of the Pliocene, and of the diluvial and alluvial formations shall have taken place." Bridgewater Treatise, p. 94, Note. London, 1836.

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