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Show 270 EOCENE PERIOD • [Ch. XIX. same may be said of those of Velay. Until the bones of men or articles of human workmanship are found buried under some of their lavas, instead of the remains of extinct animals, which alone have hitherto been met with, we shall consider it probable, as we before hinted, that the latest of the volcanic eruptions may have occurred during the Miocene period. Supposed effects of the Flood. They who have used the terms ante-diluvian and postdiluvian in the manner above adverted to, proceed on the assumption that there are clear and unequivocal marks of the passage of a general flood over all parts of the surface of the globe. It had long been a question among the learned, even before the commencement of geological researches, whether the deluge of the Scriptures was universal in reference to the whole surface of the globe, or only so with respect to that portion of it which was then inhabited by man. If the latter interpretation be admissible, the reader will have seen, in former parts of this work, that there are two classes of phenomena in the configuration of the earth's surface, which might enable us to account for such an event. First, extensive lakes elevated above the level of the ocean ; secondly, large tracts of dry land depressed below that level. 'Vhen there is an immense lake, having its surface, like Lake Superior, raised 600 feet above the level of the sea, the waters may be suddenly let loose by the rending or sinking down of the barrier during earthquakes, and hereby a region as extensive as the valley of the Mississippi, inhabited by a population of several millions, might be deluged *. On the other hand, there may be a country placed beneath the mean level of the ocean, as we have shown to be the case with part of Asia t, and such a region must be entirely laid under water should the tract which separates it from the ocean * See vo1, i. p. 89, and Second Edition, p. 101. t Vol. ii. p. 1631 and Second Edition, p.169. Ch. XIX.] DILUVJAL THEORIES. 271 be fissured or .d ep. ressed to a certa' in deptl1 · Th e grea t cav·i ty of western Asia Is 18,000 square leaO'ues I·n a· d · . . 0 rea, an Is occu-pied ?Y a conside.rable population. The lowest parts, sur-roun~ mg the Caspian Sea, are 300 feet below the level of the Euxme,-here, therefore, the diluvial waters miO'ht fl • 0 over ow the s.u mmits of. hills ri.s inOo' 300 feet above the 1e ve1 of tl1 e p1 a m· ; a.n d I.f dep.r essiOns still more profound ex1'sted a t any l.rO rmer tune m Asia, the tops of still loftier mountains may have been covered by a flood. But it is undeniable, that the great majority of the older commentators have held the deluge~ according to the brief account of the event given by Moses, to have consisted of a rise of waters over the whole earth, by which the summits of the loftiest mountains on the ()'lobe were sub d M • • . • 5 merge . any have mdulged In speculations concerning the instruments em-ployed t~ ~r~ng about the grand cataclysm; and there has been a great divisiOn of opinion as to the effects which it might be expe.cted to have produced on the surface of the earth. Accordmg to one school, of which De Luc in former times, an d more recently Dr. Buckland, have been zealous and eloquent suppo~ters~ the passage of the flood worked a considerable alteratiOn In :he exte~nal configuration of our continents. By the last-m. entiOned writer the deluge is represented as a VI·O 1e nt and transient rush of waters which tore up the soil to a great depth, excavated valleys, gave rise to immense beds of 1 • 1 · d f s 1mg e, came ragments of rock and gravel from one point to an tl . d d · · o 1e1, an ' urmg Its advance and retreat, strewed the valleys, and even the tops of many hills, with alluvium*. But we agree with Dr. Fleming t, that in the narrative of Moses there are no terms employed that indicate the impet b' f uous rus mg o the waters, either as they rose or when they rc- * Buck1and, Reliquim Diluviaure. t See a Memoir by the Rev John Fl · D D Ediu Ph'l J . . emmg, . ., on the Geological Deluge Oct •1 8271 • . ourn. ' v. ol . x.1 v• p • 205 ' w h ose opm· 1· 0ns were l'eviewed by the author in' . 'man arhcle m the Quarterly Review, No.lxxii. p. 481. |