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Show 272 EOCENl~ PERIOD. (Ch. XIX. treated, upon the restraining of the rain and the p.assing of a w.m d over t h e ear· tl1 . On the contrary, the. o.h ve.- branch, brou<r11 t b ac<1 b Y tl1 e dove ' seems as clear an md1cat10n to us 0 that t 11 e vege t a t1' 0 n was not destroyed, as it was then to Noah that the dry land was about to appear. . . . . We have been led with great reluctance mto tlns d1gresswn, m· t 11 e 11 0pe o f relievin<br the minds of some of our readers from groundless apprehension respecting the bearing ~f many o~ the · l t d 1' views ac voca e 11 this work · They have been m the habit of rcgard .m g the diluvial theory . above contr.o verted as alon.e capable of affording an explanatiOn of geological phe~omena m accordance with Scripture, and they may have felt dtsapproba- tw. n a t our 'a ttempt to prove' in a former chapter *, that the m·m or vo1 c a nos on the flca nks of Etna may, some of them, be more tl 1a n 10 ,0 00 Years old · How, they would immediately ask, could they have escaped the denuding force of a diluvial l'llsh of waters? The same objection may have ~t:esented itself when we quoted, with so much respect, the opm10n of a dt. st·m gm·s 1 1 e d .b. otanist' that some l.i ving specim. ens of the Bao-bab tree of Africa, or the 'l'axodiUm of Mextco, may be five t 1lO USUn d ye ars Old t ' Our readers may also have been astom·s 1 1 e d a t ti1e hi<br h ~a ntiquity assi<br ned by us to the g. reatel' part of the European alluviums, and the many d1fferent ages to which we refer them t, as they may have been t~ught to cons1· a er tl1 e , .•. hole as the result of one recent and stmtt. l- taneous m· un datt'on · Lastly' they may have felt some drs· appom. t men t at observing' that we attach no value whatev.e l' to the hypothesis of M. Elie de Beaun:ont, adopted .by Pl.o- 1~ essor S ed gwt.c k ' that the sudden elev. atiOn of. mountam-chams ' has been followed again and agam by m1ghty waves d~so- latinO' whole regw. ns o f t 11 e ear th §' ' a phenomenon whtch, accorb d.m g t o the last- mentioned of these writers, has ' taken * Chap. viii. p. 100. t P. 147. ·~ See above, p. 99. § P. 101. Ch. XIX.] RECAPITULATION. 273 away all anterior incredibility from the fact of a recent deluge*.' For our own part, we have always considered the flood, if we are required to admit its universality in the strictest sense of the term, as a preternatural event far beyond the reach of philosophical inquiry, whether as to the secondary causes employed to produce it, or the effects most likely to result from it. At the same time, it is evident that they who are desirous of pointing out the coincidence of geological phenomena with the occurrence of such a general catastrophe, must neglect no one of the circumstances enumerated in the Mosaic history, least of all so remarkable a fact as that the olive remained standing while the waters were abating. Recapitulation.-We shall now briefly recapitulate some of the principal conclusions to which we have been led by an exa~ mination of the volcanic districts of Central France. 1st. Some of the volcanic eruptions of Auvergne took place during the Eocene period, others at an era long subsequent, probably during the Miocene period. 2ndly. There are no proofs as yet discovered that the most recent of the volcanos of Auvergne and Velay are subsequent to the Miocene period, the integrity of many cones and craters not opposing any sound objection to the opinion that they may be of indefinite antiquity. 3rdly. There are alluviums in Auvergne of very different ages, some of them belonging to the Miocene period. Many of these have been covered by Java-currents which have been poured out in succession while the excavation of valleys was in progress. 4thly. There are a multitude of cones in Auvergne, V e1ay, and the Vivarais, which have never been subjected to the action of a violent rush of waters capable of modifying considerably the surface of the earth. 5thly. If, therefore, the Mosaic deluge be represented as universal, and as having exercised a violent denuding force, all * Anniv, Address to the Geol. Soc., Feb, 18th, 1831. VoL. III. T |