by which preternatural operation, ordained for an especial purpose by the great ruler of the universe, these secondary heights and hollows were to become visible; from the moment we take this view of the subject, every thing on the earth becomes consistent, which was before confused, and in darkness: we can trace in our minds, the whole operation of mineral secondary formations, although we cannot be expected, always, to account for the various characters impressed upon different rocks, in the course of passing under the influence of the chemical processes of nature. When we thus acknowledge the period and the mode of the deluge, we have only then to discover, in our present rocks, what the particular formations were, which formed the actual bed of the sea, at that destructive period. When we have been enabled to do this, as we often can do most distinctly, (as, for instance, in the chalk basins of geologists,) we may be satisfied, that every thing we find above them, is the result of the action of the deluge, in the slow and gradual progress of which, during one whole year, the sea would continue to arrange and deposit the substances of every kind submitted to its action, in the same manner as at other times, only to a prodigiously greater extent, from the preternatural supply of the whole movable soils and productions of the antediluvian continents.* Nor must we permit our minds to be misled by the depth and extent to which these diluvial formations are frequently found. For though in our low lands we often cannot penetrate the total depth to which they extend; yet we must keep in mind, on the other hand, that, on our higher grounds, the rocks, in numberless instances, present at once the secondary formations which formed the bed of the sea at the deluge: and, consequently, that the whole movable soils of the old world are accumulated deeply in the hollows, or spread more thinly over the plains of the new. As a familiar instance of this arrangement, we may take the chalk formation of the south of our own country, and of the north of France, which broad extent of country, though now intersected by the channel, is obviously one great continuous secondary formation of the antediluvian sea, presenting a rounded and varied outline, without any naturally abrupt form.

*"The bones of quadrupeds, already mentioned, are never found in the strata below the chalk, but always in the clay over the chalk," Edin. Encyclop. England, 713.

Let us then consider this great extent of chalk, (which, in France alone, is calculated at 16 millions of acres,) at the period of the deluge, when, as has been above explained, the interchange of level was to take place, either by the depression of the old lands, the elevation of the foundations of the old seas, or, perhaps, by the action of both these effects. This chalky accumulation of many centuries, continued below the surface during the early period of the deluge, the waters of which, turbid as they naturally must have been, deposited more or less of the new soils, over every part of it, both high and low, but, probably, to a greater depth in the hollows; the finer particles sunk, as usual, to the bottom; the grosser were moved about by the currents on the upper parts of these new formations, as they were deposited; the depression of the old continents gradually continued; until we at length arrive at a period of this interchange, when the tops of the round heights, in the chalk formation, came gradually to the surface of the waters, and were washed over by the waves. operation proceeds; they gradually become more and more elevated above the level of the waters, which, as they sink, wash off any of the new soils which might have been deposited on the heights, and carry them again into the gulfs, to undergo a fresh deposit in a lower level. The tops and sides of the chalky elevations were then left nearly bare, as we now find them; while the whole movable matter of the diluvial waters became deposited in the basins or hollows. In tracing the sections of the chalk, which are visible on the sea coasts, we often discover such hollows similarly filled up;* and we

The

*There is an interesting section of a somewhat similar basin, presented to our view, on our own shores. On the coast of Kent, the chalk cliffs of the Isle of Thanet dip beneath the diluvial deposits. about half a mile west from Pegwell, and they do not appear again upon the coast till a little way beyond Deal, in the neighbourhood of Walmer Castle. The borough of Sandwich stands in the centre of this diluvial section of a basin; and a branch of it, of a long, narrow form, divides the Isle of Thanet from the main land, and connects the diluvial formations of Sandwich with the Isle of Sheppey and the bed of the Thames, where bones of elephants, and other tropical productions, are constantly found in such abundance. The wells sunk at Sandwich, and in other parts of this plain, to the depth of from 50 to 130 feet, indicate many of the same species of diluvial strata to be found in London and at Paris. Blue clay, sand stone of various kinds, and many fossils, in the strata of clay and marl, indicate a succession very similar to that found in all such situations.

can have no reasonable doubt, that the extensive districts now contained in the well-known basins of Paris, London, and the Isle of Wight, &c., are precisely of the same character, and owe their formation, and their richness of soil, to the very same cause and period.

If any further proof of this were required, we should find it in the fossil remains of quadrupeds, birds, fish, plants, and shells, found in the lower strata of the Paris basin; similar, in many instances, to those found in the upper soils of the earth, which latter are unanimously admitted to have been lodged there by the diluvial waters.*

A section of this basin, (which has become more remarkable than numberless similar basins, merely from its situation near Paris, and its having been so minutely scanned by the distinguished Cuvier, whose theories, erroneous as they are, have been founded upon the phenomena there displayed), presents a numerous succession of distinct strata of sand, sand-stone, clay of many sorts and colours, marl, lime-stone, gypsum, burr-stone, and alluvial earths. In all these we find no formation of the same exact character, as the older sand-stone formations, or chalk, or other calcareous gradual deposits, which formed the bed of the antediluvian sea.

Cuvier remarks, that the quantity of bones embedded in the gypseous strata of Paris, is such as to be scarcely credible. In some parts of these strata there is scarcely a block

Nor can we examine any great length of coast where the chalk is the prevailing formation, without observing, in the section presented to our view, numerous smaller instances of hollows or valleys on the old surface of the chalk, which have been filled up with soil, or strata of sand and gravel; all of which are to be attributed to the same diluvial action on a small scale. Several such small basins may be seen between Ramsgate and Kingsgate in the Isle of Thanet, and also at the village of Pegwell.

"We shall conclude our account of this basin (of Paris) with an enumeration of some of the most remarkable organic remains which have been found in its various strata. Skeletons of unknown birds, elephant's bones, fish, and fish skeletons; leaves and parts of vegetables changed into silex: large trunks of palm trees converted into silex: skeletons of various quadrupeds: tortoise bones: bituminous wood; and nearly throughout all the various formations, oyster-shells."-Edin. Encyclop. France, p. 686.

The above enumeration is surely sufficient, of itself, to demonstrate the deposition of so extraordinary a mixture of land and sea productions at one and the same period, and by the action of one and the same agent.

that does not inclose a bone; and millions must have been destroyed, in the course of the old excavations, before these objects began to attract attention. The depth of the entire basin has never been ascertained, but it is calculated at about 500 feet.

Of the numerous species of fossils found in these various strata, we need only enumerate a few of the most remarkable, and coming from the most opposite latitudes, to show that this, and other such hollows, became the general deposits of every sort of diluvial debris, arranged, however, according to the mode universally prevalent, within the influence of the waters of the occan. We find, then, a vast number of marine fossil shells, of which oysters form a prominent part. Some other shells, found in a formation where vegetable fossils also were, have been called fresh water shells; and thus, the two together, have given rise to one part of Cuvier's theory of fresh water deposits.* There can be nothing surprising in finding fresh water shells, even if well ascertained to be such, in an accumulation of so varied a character; but their presence alone cannot support the extraordinary ideas of the above distinguished individual: and, besides, it is admitted, that the exact character of such shells is by no means clear. We find, amongst many vege

"Those terrestrial organic remains which may be considered as properly terrene, are presumed to be so, from their natures, and not from their situations; as they are found embedded in strata of aquatic origin, as well as in alluvial deposits, and occasionally in company with aquatic, in some cases, indeed, even with marine remains. They comprise quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, insects, and plants; and they bring us down to the last periods of the earth's change, which connect the most ancient living beings with those which are actually in existence.

"Remains of quadrupeds of various extinct genera or species, together with those of some birds and reptiles, are found accompa nying fishes and shells in the fresh water deposits of the Paris basin. These are also accumulated in caverns, or fissures, more or less entangled in earthy matter. Under the same head may be also included the animals entangled in ice."-Edin. Encyclop. Organic Remains.

We here find, in the able article, of which the above is an extract, a distinct admission of analogy between all such fossils, wherever they are found in a mixed state and it may be, perhaps, with confidence concluded, that no fossil, quadruped, bird, or plant, has yet been found, which may not be considered a deposit from the diluvial

waters.

table fossils, the stems of palm trees in a petrified state. Of large quadrupeds, birds, and fish, there are many most interesting specimens found in the gypsum formation; and, also, the bones of elephants, tortoises, crocodiles, and other tropical animals, similar in character, and in species, to many of those fossils found in lime-stone rocks in England, and elsewhere; and in the basin of London."*

We can, thus, have no hesitation in attributing similar effects to similar causes all over the world: and if it may be safely laid down as a general principle in geology, that no remains of terrestrial animals or vegetables are to be found in formations previous to the Mosaic deluge, it must naturally follow, that all formations in which such fossils are now found, are of diluvial origin. We are, of course, to distinguish between such formations, and the animal and vegetable remains found so abundantly in the more partial deposits of marshes or lakes, which have taken place in the common course of things, and are now going on under our eyes. We come to the same conclusions in considering the great deposits of rock salt and of coul, in every part of the world; on each of which it may be necessary to make some observations for nothing more strongly marks the former presence of the sea upon our present lands, than the immense strata of rock salt now found in all secondary districts.

In England, beds of from 20 to 30 yards thick, are found in Cheshire, and in other parts. Spain possesses the cele

*In the above quoted able article on organic remains, in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, amidst the general obscurity which unavoidably overhangs this subject, when viewed under the influence of existing theories, we find many gleams of light, all of which tend towards the very points for which we are now contending. The blindness of theorists to the imperfections and contradictions of their own conceits, is often exposed by the able author of that article and the geological theories of Cuvier have not escaped remark, and able animadversion. After giving an account of some fossil fish found in a calcareous shale near the village of Stein, (where the Rhine issues out from the Lake of Constance,) 500 feet above the level of the lake, and which have been called fresh water fish by Saussure, probably from the vegetable remains also found in the same deposit, this author makes the following remark, which might be equally applied to many other parts of that article: "We can only say, that if this intermixture of marine and fresh water fish exists in this place, and if there is no error in the assignment of species, the geology of this district requires to be more carefully examined."-Edin. Encyclop. Organic Remains, p. 717.