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Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film6s d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque Ie document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est fllm6 d partir de I'angle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant Ie nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. □ 32 X 1 2 3 4 5 6 THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT ^ -^ ^ OP TUB : '.A 1 ' * CREATION OF THE WORLD AND TlIK 'm*- NOACHIAN ]>ELUGE, GEOLOaiCALLY EXPLAINED, UY T. W. OOLDIB, ASSIST. COM. GENERAL SECOND EDITION, pevi£::d and enlarged by the author. >» « QUEBEC : PETER SINCLAIR, BOOKSELLER, St. John Street.— 1856. Price : One Shilling and niree Penco. THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT or THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND TBB NOACHIAN DELUGE GEOLOGICALLY EXPLAINED, BY T. W, OOLDIB, ASSIST. COM. GENERAJ «i^i> ■ SECOISTD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED BY THE AUTEOK. ■ I QUEBEC : PETER SINCLAIR, BOOKSELLER. St John Street.— 1856. Price : One Shilling and Three Pence. ST. MICHEL & DARVEAU, JOB PRINTER!?, No. 3, Mountain Street. .. .'. TO FIRST EDITFOX, i In launching this little Work on the wide waters of the wo"ld to buffet its way against the storm that I feel aware will arise around it—against the howlinir waves of Ignorance, and the fierce thunders of the Bi- got— I must premise that it was not written for publi- cation ; it was not written for the world, but to prove that the Science of Geology is not contrary to Scrip- ture, aij is supposed by so many well meaning but ignorant persons. It is, in fact, more the answer to an attack than the commencement of an argument It must not be for a single instant presumed that I am broaching altoge- ther a theory of my own upon so grand a subject as the Creation of the World. Most of my statements are up- held by the great professors of the Science ; but as these high authorities have generally written for those who altogether believe, because they comprehend what they read, and not for the many who have no leisure to pore over what at first sight appears a tissue of technical terms, I have thought it right and fair to attempt to meet the opponents of Geology on their own ground, and with their own weapons ; I therefore set out on tjie — 4 — momentous taak of taking the first chapter of Genesis, vorso by verse, and of giving its Geological interpret a- iion in Urn of that generally received. The grand principle is this, which I opine few will deny ; it is—That the Word and the Works of God «'unuot contradict each other— and therefore the strictest religionist need not fear for the truth of the fundamental portions of the Bible. In all likelihood many who will read this small Treatise, have had a certain crud« idea of Creation all being begun and concluded in one little week.-rThis idea has grown with their growtli, and strengthened with their age, until at last they have begun to consider it a part of their religion. These must not be scared because a new light is placed before them— these must not start like a frightened steed be- «aiise another view is taken on a point on which they have a preconceived idea. I say to these as I would to the startled horse— Look at it! go close to it! compare the old idea of Creation with that now laid before you. Make use of your own intellects, and choose fur your- selves. J J TO SLCOND LDllTOX. Inconsequent'c of the fuvoruMc manner in wliich the first edition of this short treatit^e has i)eeu received, and many of my fnends having stated that it cleared the donhts which they had entertained respecting the sul>je<.'ts discussed, I have been induced to bring it again before the world. Although, as I expected, in a few instances, the iiowl- ing waves of ignorance arose around my little baric, wlien first launched on the sea of public opinion, the belter educated and mast iut(dlectual of my readers at once adopted the plain and common sense view laid be- fore them. They did as I desired the startled steed U. do — they looked at it, they went clo? -o it, they com- pared it, they made use of their own intellects and chose for themselves. DO TIMU LtKKWl/E. f i THE CaEATION. Genesis Ut C/ia2)tcr, Ut Verse. — " In the Beginning God created the Hearcn and the Earth^ The Beginning here mentioned does not specify any time, or duration of time. It may have been countless ages before the commencement of the 2nd verse, and it merely seems to imply that the creation of Heaven and J'^^arth, or rather their component parts, took place. Like- wi-sc, during this Beginning, material substances appear to have been di\ided, to have taken the globular form, and as such to have had allotted to each formed world its position and path in the boundless infinite. With regard to the Heaven here mentioned, it can scarcely be supposed to represent the destined abode of the blessed ; as we are led to believe that Angels were in being before the Creation of the world, and must have had some habitat, which we may reasonably opine to be the true or spiritual heaven. Indeed, from the succeeding verses merely treating of the Creation of the Earth, and things relating to the Earth, it (the Heaven) would appear to signify the whole of the heavenly bo- dies, including the Sun, and not the blue expanse as seen by us, and called by the vulgar the heaven or sky, which merely depends on the refraction and reflection of light by our atmosphere, and the watery vapor contained therein. It must also be remembered that at the time of the writing of this narrative by Moses, it was not known that the world was globular — it was considered to be a Hat surface? overhun*' bv a blue semi-ODaQue canopy, i Beginning )ci'\ly any countless 86, and it eaven and ace. Like- es appear liar form, led world ed, it can I abode of jels were md must )ly opine from the on of the I Heaven) venly bo- 38 as seen iy, which 1 of light contained le time of lot known d to be a I canopy, studded with little stars, and ujdioldiiig a lar^'C quantity of water, which dripped through for rain, aud beyond this lanopy Heaven was conceived to be. In pursuing tliis inquiry, we must not lose sight (»f the almost inconceivable smallness, and utter insignificance of our Earth in this system of the universe ; so that we perceive how absurd it would be to sui)pftse that the laws by which the Almighty has thought fit t'^ govern tln' enormous amount of worlds which Astronomy reveals, should have been altered or reversed, to suit the conve- nience of such a comparatively contemptible object. The Creation of the whole of the universe appears to be thus summarily treated of in consequence of its being obviously of small importance, in a religious point of view, to know how, when, or why it was created. The Bible is a Book the avowed object of which is the teaching Religion, and not Natural Philosophy, and those who attempt to learn Natural I'hilosophy from it, and thus divert it from the purpose for which wo are expressly told it was given us, may rest assured that their own vain imaginings will lead them into error. If then it can lt«' shown that the Book of God, and the revelations of the Book of Nature, are not at variance one with tho other, it is all we ought to look for. Tho Creation of the Universe being thus merely stated, the account descends more into particulars as to the mode in which the Creation, or rather the moulding or preparing for the abode of organic life of the surface of our globe, and of what otherwise aflFects us, took place. In my opinion none of the subsequent verses relate to aught else than the concerns of our earth. I must now beg my readers to entirely divest them- selves of the idea of the whole Creation having been per- formed in six davs. accordinP' to niir idpas nf that npriod — 8 — of time; that is twenty-four hours, the period of the turn- ing of the earth upon its axis ; and shall now proceed to f liow, not that the Almighty could not perform this won- der, but merely that he did not. Remember that to him one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand vears as one dav. Forthe sake of shewing the absurdilv of a dav mean- nig (as applied to Creation) twenty-fourW our hours, we will suppose, for an instant, that there were people in .Inpiter, Saturn, and the Earlh, and that all parties were informed that the Creation of the Universe took place in six days. What would they all have to believe? The Satums would have to believe it took G3 hours to create, •Inpiter GO liours, and we should think it took longer than both the olher two, namely, 144 hours. I would ask. is this reasonable, or according to common sense, to have ( 'reation taking place, not to say in three, but three dozen I'criods of time. The days mentioned in Scripture are. without doubt, unuuml>ercd ages, and I propose, for the sake of perspicuity, to term them the i::pochs of Creation. Fir§t Kpocrli. Without stopping to examine the theorv which sup- poses our globe to have at one time been in a state of Insion, which if it ever occurred, may have been in the period of time represented in the 1st verse, I shall pass at once to that mentioned in the 2d verse, when it would Jippear that " The earth was without form, end void/' •Form, "does not seem to signify shape, but that everv thing was in confusion, and it was •' Void, " becaus'e »iot yet fitted for the habitation of living creatures, *' And darkness was upon the face of the deep " In this state it appears that the earth was yet chaotic, perhaps one vast ocean covering the entire surface in all proba- bllitv to no verv ■ - - great depth, and holding in suspe ucion ►f the turn- proceed lo tbis wou- bat to him 1 \ years as lay mean- hours, wo people in rlies were i place in re? The to create, ngerthan (1 ask, is to have 'ce dozen :ure are, ?, for (ho -'rention. ich sup- state of n in the all pass t would void. " t everv because matures, In this >erhap.s proba- JODiion — 9 — and solution, the constituents of our older stratified rocks. Possibly chemical affinity had not yet come into play, and the gases that compose the atmosphere which sur- rounds us were amalgated with this primordial liquid, and the sun although created did not yet give light. 3d Verse.— And God said: « Let there be light, and there was light.'' This cannot refer to the absolute creation of light, but rather to its being called into action so far as concerns us, for no one can for an in- stant imagine that the habitation of the powers of hea- ven was in utter darkness until the creation of our globe or that it even now receives light from our ^n. We are not told how or from whence this light came, but on the supposition that the sun was not yet lumi- nous during this and the two following days or epochs, light must have been encircling the entire globe, there- fore the expression, « And God divided the light from the darkness, " must have referred to the division of their names— in fact was merely naming the ideas connected with the absence or presence of light, as there could l)e no division in any other manner, unless indeed light came from the sun, in which case the darkness would of course be caused by the earth turning on its axis. 5th Verse.—'* And the evening and the morning were thejirst daif',— or more properly rendered, " The even- ing was and the morning was "—that is to say, ww have had the commencement and are come to the end of a grand Epoch. The evening and morning here mention- ed, could never have meant night and day according to our acceptation of the terms, because night is not an actual departure of light, but occasioned by a part of the earth turning itself away from the sun as it revohes on its axis. Now on the other hand, if we are to believe that light was at this period all round the globe, no — 10 _ rovuMons, k-t them have been few or many, could .ave effeetod it in this re.speet so as to have caused either day or night, and we must not forget in concluding h« subject that neither Moses or Ids people were aware that any such revolutions took place. Second Epoch. M rm.._.< Let there he a firmament in the muht of the waters, and let it divide the wafers from the umters.-' That is, let chemical affinity begin to act, and let llierc be a separation of those atmospheric gases forming ..ur firmament with its clouds, and dividing the watert from the waters below, which we may opine to fori fir' / """"t';'"^''' ^"""""O'-g tho globe was fo. hefirst ,me capable of holding water in suspension. l>urmg the period, let it be long or short, in which 'b^'se gases were rising from the primordial liquid, a -simultaneous chemical precipitation of our mineral and pvan.tic strata took place: thus forming a crust of the wmnndedL'^h" "^ ""'\ ^""""^ '"'"^ »<• ^ome soft) Minoundedby the sea, perhaps to no very great depth In all probability the sea now for the first time became Hull. 8,;, r.T...... And God called thejirmament Heaven r' o.t of tlie Heavens) was created in the first verse, su this Heaven and that there mentioned are different and di.stinct, neither being the true Heaven as I before im- plied : and now the termination of a second epoch occurs. Third Epoch. m Verse.^^^ And God said: let the waters under the heaven he gathered together into me place, and let the dry Innd aj>j>ear ! and it iva» so, 10th. And God called the ll_ many, could I caused either in concluding le were aware in the m'uhf m the ivafers.'" act, and let :ases forming ig the waters nay opine to e globe was suspension. )rt, in which ial liquid, a mineral and crust of the 1 some soft) great depth. ime became It Heaven T' • rather the st verse, so lifferent and before ini- )0ch occurs. s under the let the dry called the — li - dry land «' earthr and the gathering together of the wa- ters called the seas, and God saw that it was good.** Sedimentary strata were depositing during the last, and in all likelihood were still at the commencement of this era. And now by the last great act of volition an awful expansion of the interior of the globe took place ; forth from the depths of the encompassing ocean arose the giant peaks of granite, tossing the scared waters from their scorching brows; forth into light arose the ancient continents, together with some of ours, and some of our great chains of mountains, the tops of which in many parts formed islands in the early sea. This up- heaval of the land in some places naturally deepened the bod of the sea in others, thereby throwing the waters into one place, and leaving the land in some parts cavernous beneath. This point, as it more properly belongs to the Noach- ian Deluge, will be more fully discussed when we enter upon that subject. We have now rock upheaved above the ocean, and some length of time must be permitted to elapse to allow sufficient abrasian by the action of air and water to form a covering of soil or mould. This being done, the earth is fitted for the production of vege- table life, and consequently— F/rZe Utk Verse— " And the earth brought fwth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding jruit whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saio that it was goodr It ap- pears that at the command of the Almighty, vegetation spread itself over the surface of the ancient lands, the lowest tribes first according to their stand in creation. We have no reason to suppose that this command to the earth to be productive, ceased to have effect at the termination of its era, or that every tree we possess sprang from those early ones, but rather that every part I — 12 — of the earth whensoever it comes to light, past, present, or future, is by that uttered law to bring forth vegetation suitable to its soil and to its climate. Fourth Epoch* letk Verse.-.*' And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, he made the stars aZso."— It is generally sup. posed that this verse refers to the creation of the Sun and Moon, but this is not stated in the text, but merely that they became lights. In this first supposition it would appear, that until the fourth day or era of Genesis, there were neither Sun, Moor, or Stars, and that our planet, although one of the least, was the o.,ly created body of space, and according to this view of the question must have been a stationary dot in the midst of illimitable emp^ tiness, or otherwise flying through space on its headlong course, there being no Sun, no centre of gravity to con- fine it to an orbit. Is it not much more in reason to sup* pose, (if there be any primogeniture in the case,) that the great luminary who holds by his vast attraction this earth, and all her sister satellites in check, and keeps them in the paths that they should run; is it not more reasonable to opine that he should be the first, or in any point of view, not the last created. I may as well here state for the information of those who are not conversant with the subject, that the respective dimensions and dis tancesof the Sun and our little earth, are about equiva- lent to a globe of two feet in diameter, and a pea placed about 215 feet off. This is a plain statement of facts, make use of your own intellects and judge for yourselves, without bias or prejudice on either side. The gravitating power of our sovereign orb having past, present, •th vegetatiou at lights, the • light to rule Bherally sup- 1 of the Sun , but merely tion it would enesis, there our planet, ited body of jstion must nitable emp- its headlong tvity to con- ason to sup* case,) that raction this and keeps it not more t, or in any iS well here conversant •ns and dis. )ut equiva- pea placed ise of your thout bias rb having, — 13 — no connection whatever with his light, we may read the text that this latter property was now first conferred on him, for as I before remarked, it is not stated that the Sun was now created, but only tliat he was made a light. It must not bo for a moment imagined that the Sun is a globe of fire ; he is in fact a largo dark body of earth, but of infinitely less density than our world, being only one-fifth heavier than water. About fifty thousand miles from his surface he is surrounded with a vast ocean of phosphorescent clouds, which is what is visible to us and gives us light, and \hQ dark spots that sometimes appear on his surface, are occasioned by the terrible hurricanes that sweep along his equator, and rising in mighty whirlwinds, tear apart his phosphorescent at- mosphere, and shew to our admiring view masses of the giant orb many thousand miles in extent. I may here express my obligations to my friend Staff Surgeon T. P. Matthew, for the following informa- tion on the properties of light, and for his reading of the texts of Genesis which treat of that power, here mserted, but also ibr much valuable asi^istance during the compilation of the pages : '' Light we are told existed in the fir.^t epoch, but It would appear not to have come from the Sun in par- ticular. This certainly is a difficulty hard to surmount but when we reflect that even now, we are totally ig- norant what light is ; that the celebrated theory of Des- cartes of undulations of ether, has by discoveries since his time, especially by some facts connected with the polarization of light, been in a manner overturned, and that light may with more probability he considered a substance; there is no reason why it might not have ex- ...Ki^ .M!,e|,f ,.«c«iMj ui .no siiij, as ii does to this day in mcandesccnt bodies, hot iron for instance, or the flame ! i: - 14 - of a candle, which is merely carbon, heated till it be- comes luminous ; or the best example of all. Lime, heaed. under the oxybydrogen blowpipe, which almost rivals m mtensity the direct rays of the sun. Here again we are at fault from our very imperfect knowledge of rp«."/f]'/"^'; -^^ sun's rays are compound, there are at least three kmds which may by artificial means be seoa- rated the one from the other. First^Light recognized by the optical apparatus, which again is decomposable mto three colored rays. Second-Heat recognized by the sentient part of the nervous system in general, as well as by its effects on inanimate objects, such as the ihermometer, producing combustion, &c. Third- Chemical rays which are not appreciable by any of our senses, but are recognised by the effects they produce ^ in torming certain chemical combinations and decompo- Mtions. These three kinds may be entirely separated one from the other. " It is perhaps possible to explain the text in this wanner.-The abstract idea of light was created in the 4th verse, and perhaps the Sun was even then endowed with the light giving property, but there was yet no at- mosphere around the Earth, still the Sun's rays may have shone on what we have termed the primordial liquid. In the sixth verse, the atmosphere with its fir- mament is created, and now again the Sun's light be- comes a diffused one as on a dark cloudy day, and the luminary is not visible, there is an intensely humid at- mosphere, which is very favorable to vegetation, and may be one cause of the great palm and fern fossils that we find embedded in our older stratified rocks. The 14th verse may signify that this atmosphere became more suPh''?i/^'^7^' «« longer^ able to hold in suspension .- -C_ a .arge amount Oi liquid, and consequently now the ^^ law till it be- all, Lime, ich almost Sere again Jwledge of lere are at 3 be sepa- recognized amposable guized by eneral, as ich as the Third— my of our J produce decompo- separated xt in this ed in the endowed et no at- ays may rimordial h its fir- light be- and the umid at- ion, and sils that ?he 14th ne more ^pension now the — 15 — Sun and Moon became apparent to the Earth, as two great lights or luminous bodies, whereas previously only a diffused light was visible, which, however, would have been quite sufficient to have brought to maturity many species of vegetables. The bringing forth by the Earth of vegetable products before the mentioned creation of the Sun as a light, is an additional proof, if it werf^ needed, that this body (the Sun) existed before the 14th verse, both as a gravitating power and a light giving body, though in consequence of the mists which arose on the formation of the atmosphere, it was not visible from the earth as a light. " The summary manner in which the creation of the so called lesser bodies of space, is passed over by the last Sentence in the 16th verse, " He made the Stars also,'' merely implies their immateriality as far as we and our religion are concerned, without in the least detracting from their grand position in the scale of creation, many of them being larger than our Sun. Look for an instant at the neai..st fixed star, the splendid and gigantic Sirlus, whose mighty globe is more than equal to thirteen of our Sun, who, from the distance of nineteen billions of miles, flings his glittering rays upon our ocean, with a light un- dimmed by the Moon of the tropics. Think for an instant what his satellites must be, what noble worlds whirl around his fiery orb, although too distant for our imper feet vision. And what must we be compared with them, what must this earth and her little sister planets be when our Sun, our ^reat centre of attracticn, would be over- whelmed amidst the glare which pours from the globe ot the stately Sirius ? And doubtless there are many equal to him, far, far away, in the unfathomable depths of the eternity of distance. I cannot, for my own part, con- ceive how any man could for a moment suppose that all — 16 — tl.ese innumerable worlds were formed for his privah, I'onven.ence and (ogive him light, when he cannot see one thousandth part of them ; in fact, I do not believe Mt the 17th verse, ^' And God ^et them in the firma- ^nentoj the heaven to give light vpon the earth, and to nileover the day and over the night, and to divide the yh fr^i the darkne^r applie.s to the Stars at all, but to he S.m and Moon, the fact of the creation of th. Ntellar bodies being read in parenthesis. 'u these bodies, m a mundane point of view, setting asid'e purposes ot navigation and a small degree of light, is Hui they may uphold an equilibrium of gravitv in the ightyvoid, each individual globe being poised bv the hand of the great Father, adds its iota to sustain the balance of the grain sand hosts of its myriad sisters. ibis IS the question in a philosophical light, in a reli- gious one it only concerns us to know that thev were «. and by whom. This is shown in the shortest and simplest manner, no astronomical details entered mto as not required by religion, for had Moses written Hs account contrary to the then conceived notion of ibmgs, (which as we are all now perfectly aware was very crude, or rather completely wrong,) he would have thrown discredit on his whole narrative. We may therefore consider that the being of the Stars concerns us ia the exact ratio in which they are men- tioned by the great Lawgiver of the Hebrews, that is. m the smallest possible degree. As to whether the worlds of space are habitations of life, or not, is also a subject, religiously speaking, of no concern to us ; the i^ook of their Creator says nothing on either side, but 1 we may judge from the innumerable forms of life on this little planet, of the pleasure taken by the Almighty I ' . c - 17 — in dispensing the greatest of earthly enjoyments, as lile manifestjy is, may we not reasonably opiije iix^i the countless hosts of Heaven are not all «' Void " ? But although som,e may still be " without form " (as in all likelihood the Moon) that others are even now covered with masses of life, vegetable ajid animal ; whhe others aguin may be advancing towards that climax which our Earth has now attained. Should tiiese bodies be ^ihabited, their principal deni- zens may be inferior, equal, or superv)r to ourselves We have no right to limit the power of our Creator to placing huma,n beings on this globe alone, esp,ecially as we do know of a superior created race, and we do not know of its whereabouts, perhaps in some of those mighty and distant worlds ? But this is trenching too much on a subject, to the grand,eur of whose altitude embodied man can never attain, to the depths of whose glory he can never dive, and betwixt the materiality or imma- teriality of whose Being, \is finite mind can never discriminajte. Fifth Epoch. 20th Verse, ^'^ And God said: Let the Waters In, tg forth abundantly, the moving creature that hath life, and fowl tJiat mayfiy above the earth in the open firmament oj heaven:'^ln entering on the creation of Fish and Fowl, as stated in this and the following verse, I would first observe that this is merely a statement of the formation of these beings by the Almighty hand, leaving to human research to discover which was first and whicih last, as a point quite unnecessary to religion which this chapter is intended to teach, and not the natural sciences, which are only borne on in a vague manner, but sufficientlv so to show us " that all things were made by him." — 18 — Tlie diflferent eras of separate creations, during each ot which whole tribes of life were swept from existence. liH ?" ^^ ?r""^'^y' 'PP^^^ *« h^^« ^^'^ entirely omitted m the Mosaic narrative, as being out of the line writing of a religious teacher, but as it has never been stated to the contrary, there is no heavenly reason whv these successive creations should not have been, but a very strong earthly one why they should. louring this Epoch ages of time elapsed, the second- ^thTh nTr.'^?P°'^^'^"°^ "P^«*^^^' commencing with the d Red Sandstone, and passing upwards through he Mountain limestone, the Coal measures, the 7.1 1 ^f^'*'"'' ^^" ^'^'> ^^'^ 0«"te, the Wealden. and t e ChalL This vast series of strata is many thou- >andfeet in thickness, two distinct assemblages ofter restial plants flourished, and became extinct, the marine /oophites were changed, the gasteropod and cephalopod niolusca were equally altered, the trilobites were swept away, two vast creations of fishes vanished from the scene before the deposition of the chalk, while on the earth and in the sea thousands of gigantic reptiles held un- questioned sovereignty, until the bed of the vast creta- •^ean ocean upwards of a thousand feet in thickness rose above the wave, back fell the rushing waters as the now green fields of England burst upon the light, then died those giant dragon forms whose shattered skeletons we delve from the debris of their watery tombs, then died those fearful Lizards, one of whom with a single sweep of his mighty tail, could have bade defiance to the united Jury of an hundred Lions. The uppermost secondary rocks are glancing in the sun light, the broad breast of the new earth is teeming with vegetable life, her old exist- r^nces have passed for ever, she smiles to the hand of the great Father of life, and lo! her answer is come, for — 19 — •• the evening and the morning are the fifth day," and it is the commencement of the Sixth C^pocli. For tlie Bruto rises on the scene, and the Reign of the Reptile i^ piissed. ' 'i^th Verse— And God said let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, Cattle and creeping thing, and Beast of the Earth after his kind, and it was ■''^' " — 'I'lJis verse which we now propose to discuss is I hat in which a superior order of animals is called into life. It would iL^em that at this period tiio p:arth, that is the surface of the ancient continents, was sufficiently dried, and the air sufficiently purified, from the consump- tion by excessive vegetation of vast quantities of carhd- nic acid gas, which would have prevented the develope- ment of the higher order of Mammalia. Now, there- fore, we perceive the creation of this the highest kingdoju of nature, with the superior Man, last. In this opinion the Bible and Geology go hand in hand. Moses passes over the Brute with a plain state- ment as usual, without entering further on the subject except to specify that his creation is of later date than that of the Bird, the Reptile, or the Fish, but prior to that of humanity. It was left for man to discover who took the lead on the great stages of life. In two or three places in this treatise I have stated that the lowest forms of life were the first created. As I find that this has by some been misunderstood, it appears needful to explain that it is not a gradual per- fection in the same class of existence which has taken place ; far from it, the earliest Zoophites and Mollusca are not inferior in organization to their living prototypes but greatly superior m size. Of all vertebrate animals, I ~ 20 — fishes rank the lowest and appear first on ^he stage of «xistH.^.1 t^f^... 4.1,-. Ji i /• T* 1 • • ■« iii.su Si,.- .v.«r-iiuiucu uVuw mo uvruyst ui JiODgals uriud- ed sons. 23 — rhe Mam- } living, r. odon. le. Lion. ?sli water 'ian fami- of exist- mus, and remains ast crea- ■ species surround long red es; Hip- with the )ti, huge phantine )robosci- 3 shaken is blind- Then England rang to the yell of the Wolf, the roar of the Tiger, and the howl of the Hyena. Then Europe swarmed with gigantic Bears in myriads, there also hved a mighty Dog. who could have heard unmoved the challenge of a charging Lion. And where are they i Gone ! gone for ever ! They havQ ran their allotted course, the fiat of the great Father of Life has gone forth. Man rises on the scene; and the reign of the Brute has passed. I would now draw a distinct line between the rest of the earth, and that portion on which the first man first saw the light of heaven. That light which has for ages ceased to brighten those vallies or gild those mountain tops, where stood the homes of our primeval fathers. I conceive it not improbable that some of the tribes, (for mstance the great Elk) were for a short period contempo- rary with Man; not, however, on the same portion of the .dobe, but distributed on large raised patches or islands- the part inhabited by Man we will terra for the sake of perspicuity the "Adamite Lands." It would appear that the Brutes created immediately around Man, were those, and only those, which were in- tended to be of service to him, for this reason every crea- ture, beast, fowl, and insect, is given by the 30th verse— "Every green herb for meat." Now, those animals which are of service to Man, and which it appears Man possessed (by the fact of Abel being a keeper of Sheep,) are the very ones which live on grass. " Cattle" are ex- pressly stated as being made, together with the " Beast of the Earth." The term cattle may comprehend the. Ovine, Caprine, Bovine, and perhaps some of the Antilo- pean families, the two former of which are never found in .. .« ...xi ,:,t,xivv. X iiiB juci , lugotiier With an expression taken from some of the Old Heathen Mythologies, that -■-•■■'i'" " - 24 — Noah was the first " who tamed the Bull, and submitted his neck to the yoke," leaves me in doubt whether I am not going too f&r in admitting him amongst the Adamite brutes. The next question is what is meant by the " Beast of tiio Earth" — is it a comprehensive totality of brute crea- tion, or a specific race ? I am periectly aware it is by most conceived to be tlie Mammoth of Northern Europe, as the translation of the word signifies as much. True he was graminivorous, and might well have been one of the inhabitants of the Adamite earth to keep in check the still luxuriant vegetation, but for one reason, he is no longer in existence ! The door of that miracle ship that saved male and female of all life was closed against him ! lie could not have been there to save. But we trench upon the deluge ! I would here hint at the possibility of this beast being the Camel and Dromedary, his fossil existence being ai best very doubtful, and his great utility to those who dwell in tents as a beast of burden, as well as for his flesli, milk and hide, together with the fact of his never being found in a wild state, speak volumes in his favour These are the only specific Mammals in Genesis, whether the suggestion of this last named quadruped be correct or not, I shall now take the opportunity of answering an opi- nion that I have heard broached, to the effect that by " Beast of the Earth" is meant the great Felina^, but that, they did not at that time eat flesh. I would maintain that no Carnivora existed on the Adamite continent, as it is physically impossible that any of them could have lived on green kerbs, and no end could have been answered by a miracle being called into rJubmitted stlier I am Adamite * Beast of rute crea- e it is by I Europe, li. True in one of in check , he i8 no ship that nst him ! ^e trench ist being being at Dse who for his lis never ? favour whether ! correct an opi- hat by but that, on llie lie that, no «ind ed into — 25 — action for the purpose of enabling their stomachs to digest vegetable matter, as some suppose, and an alter- ation made after the fall of man, not only in the exterior appearance, but in the interior economy of these crea- tures to suit their change of diet. In fact this alteration is a bona-fide new creation in every sense of the word, unless indeed the progressive developement theory be adopted, which permits a calf, or any other animal, at will to alter all his interior functions to suit the diet he may fancy, binding his offspring to live on the same, until one more aspiring than the rest rises by anothei wish to he superior still. But to return. When we look at the Book of Nature, we see every being formed to suit its station in life, both outwardly and inwardly, from the insect to the man, and nothing to excite a smile in any one of them. To the eye of the naturalist the incongru- ous specimens of brute creation which the alteration the- ory would produce would be truly astounding, however immaterial they might appear to the tyro. I will now proceed to shew the absurdity of this idea, but in as con- cise a manner as possible proceed to define the altera- tions required to qualify the present carnivorous races to subsist on vegetable diet, or in other words to shew them as they must have been if denizens of the Garden of Eden. I take for examples the Sovereigns of the two great kingdoms, the Lion and the Eagle. In the first we require the teeth to be remodeled, to be brought forward at adiflFerent period of the animal's existence, and to have flattened crowns. We require the condyles of the jaw to admit of a lateral motion, instead of a perpendicular one, like a pair of shears as at present. Any person may comprehend this difference by ob- ttntmt^ i!/ iil — 26 — serving the lateral and crushing motion of the jaws of the horse or sheep, and comparing the chopping or cut- ting movement of those of the dog or cat. Substitution of hoofs for useless talons must also take place, includ- ing of course a reformation of all the bones of the ex- tremities. In fact every muscle and every bone must be changed, as also the powers of sight, the intestines must be elongated, and all the digestive organs, to- gether with the action of the gastric juice, completely altered. The feet of the Eagle must lose their hooked claws, which would prevent his travelling with ease on the flat ground to seek his food, or when found to scratch it from beneath the surface ; his beak also must be straightened, and lose its serrated edge, he must also be furnished with a gizzard, and an elongation of the colon, his great powers of wing and vision would also be useless. I hope I have now made clear what I before stated that these necessary alterations constitute new beings, and be it remembered that no remains of any such horrid abortions have ever been discovered. Be- fore taking leave of the alterationists, I would remark that their theory not only detracts from the prescience of the Creator, but falsifies those often written words " And God saw that it was good, " by shewing that all were not good, that some were not suitable to the cir- cumstances in which they found themselves — circum- stances unforeseen and unprepared for, shewing the fall of Man and his expulsion from Eden, to have overthrown all the plans of Creation in an instant, that a remodel- ling of all life was necessary, in short that there was a mistake which required correction. Now look at the subject in its expanded sense, maik in every creature the Omniscience of the Almighty Father who plftoed it on thttt spot of earth where its 'if! ~ 27 — presence was required, who looking from the vistas of pretemporal ages determined the place and time each order of being should rise to life. A creature is requir- ed ; at the fitting moment he springs to being, to do his duty on that Earth to which it has pleased his Maker to call him. No mistakes, no miscalculations, no errors to be amend- ed in the setting of those types from which is printed the great volume of nature, the living Book of God ! The species like the individual runs its allotted course for its allotted time, and like it is swept away, and ano- ther rises ; so like the shifting scenes of a Diorama move over the face of this terrestrial ball its hosts of life. I^et us now proceed to take a glance at the Creation of Humanity. It appears by the 27th verse, that after anil, al existence in its varied gradations from the Mol- lusk I » the Mammal was complete, that " God created Man in his own image, in the image of God created he him!" We are taught to believe that God is a Spirit, and on this belief I am induced to think that His image in the likeness of which he created Man, is a spiritual one al- though immeasurably inferior, " even a little lower than the Angels, " and not as is generally opined, the mate- rial figure to be the image of the Creator ; whom while knowing to be the essence of power, goodness, and glory, we can hardly conceive to be in the similitude of a body formed of Carbon, lime, magnesia, gases, &c., or in the words of Scripture " the dust of the earth, " in fact ma- terials of His own creation. The Almighty appears to have given Man dominion over the Earth, and the creatures that were upon it, he also appoints Com and Fruit to be the food of Man, while II: ; t ! — 28 — for the animal creation he "gives every Green Herb for ^ There is one point connected with the creation of man- kind which will never be solved to the satisfaction of all parties, it is this, whether or not the different races which people the earth are originally from one stock My own opinion is. that at the best it is very doubtful,' and there IS much to say on both sides. The grand hold- fast for the unity of mankind is, that all the races, let them be Black, Red, or white, are prolific one with the other, and likewise their descendants also. This is cer tainly a powerful argument, and one most difficult to re- fute, but in glancing through the first few chapters of the Pentateuch we come upon some rather extraordinary statements, which makes me believe that there were other human beings in existence at the time of Adam, inde- pendent of him, although in all likelihood under his So- vereignty. The more we study the Book of Genesis the more it appears to me that it was not the intention of the Jewish lawgiver to imply that aU mankind sprang from Adam and Eve, as the original stock of the human species, in- dependent of anatomical differences and cases of analogv in the brute creation. Before mention is made of Adam the Chieftain, the creation of mankind as a totality is stated in 27th verse of the first chapter, " So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and Female created he them." Again in the 5th chapter, vide 1st verse, "This is the Book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him " This verse seems to apply to Adam the Chief, the next, to the race or mass of the people, yide 2nd verse, " male and 1 4 — 29 — Herb for n of man- ion of all 3nt races tie stock, doubtful, md hold- races, let with the lis is cer- ult to re- apters of ordinary ire other n, inde- his So- more it s Jewish 1 Adam ['ies, in- analogy tin, the h verse is own lie and ? is the at God This to the le and female created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created." ThuH it appears that the tribe was Adam, and the leader Adam, as is the case with many Eastern and Arabian tribes to the present day. Adam is certainly st...ed to be the father of all livmg, the v'ord " Father" being taken in its literal sense has occasioned great misapprehension in those parts of the world where the people are not accustomed to Oriental figures of speech, even as far west as Spain, the people address those who are sot in authority over them as their father, although they may be years junior. This holdp entirely in the Eastern tongues, vide 4th chapter, verses 20th and 21st. " And Adah bore Jabal, he was the father of such as dwell in tents and such as have cattle." " And his brother's name was Jubal, he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ." This cannot be intended to signify their paternal parent, but rather their patriarch or chieftain. The latter seems to indicate the first who brought the science of music to perfection, while the former appears to have been the leader of a wandering horde. In fact no one is mentioned of the descendants of Cain, but the eldest sons or heads of the tribe. By the 1st and 2nd verses of 4th chapter, Cain and Abel appear to have been born, and in the 8th verse, on account of a difference in religious opinions, the two young chieftains quarrelled, and the younger was slain by the elder. Cain is for the crime expatriated, but he fears to fly into the wilderness, for he says in the 4th verse, ** And it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me." 15th.-—" And the I^rd set a mark upon Gain leri anv fin/linnf K{rv> oltAail^ till ^i?-" " vr t -i -• • -.« "•"v '*"^*'"6 Utjii ouvuiu Kill uliu. nuw i WOiilci ASK ( il there were no people alive but Adam, Eve, aad Oaia) HI — 30 — who was Cain afraid of? I am usually answered in reply to this question, "the sons of Adam and Eve'" Dut I can scarcely opine that Cain would have thought Ht once of lookuig so far into futurity as to have secured Inmself against a set of people, who he knew perfectlv we 1 were not yet in existence, and would assuredly take at least sixty years to grow up, quite sufficient time for him to ho at such a distance as to be out of danger ; should It be asked on what data I have taken sixty years to have elapsed before the Antidiluvian patriarchs attain- ed the age of manhood, I beg to refer to the entire of the oth chapter, in which it will be seen that no children were born to any one of them before the age of sixty.five Hnd up to 187 years ; and this has nothing to do with the ^luestion as to whether these years were equal to or shorter than our own. It also appears on reference to 4th chapter, 16th and 17th verses, that « Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden and Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch, and he builded a city, and called the name ot the city after the name of his son Enoch." Who was this wife, and where did she come from ? Assuredly she was not the daughter of Eve. By 3rd and 4th verses of ■5th chapter we perceive that -Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth, and the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years, and he begat sons and daughters." We see by this that Abel was slain, and Cain fled, be- fore the birth of Seth, who took their place as head of the tribe under his father. Here again it is only the eldest son who is mentioned by name, and the voun^fir nor, as merely -sons and daughters." A little work'of "the 1 -- 31 — liite Mrs. Hannah More, entitled the "Death of Abel," has misled many, she has included amongst her dramatis persona?, the wives of both Cain and Abel, and termed both the daughters of Eve. Scriptural tracts and dra- mas, both in poetry and prose, together with Milton him- self, often get so jumbled up in people's minds that at the end they are not always altogether sure whether it is the Bil)lc they are believing or not. I think, as my readers will admit, that there is no true data to support the idea that Cain's wife was his own sister, in the chapter under consideration, but rather that she must have sprung from another source, we may now touch on the next, not a little extraordinary performance on the part of Cain, namely, that of building a city. On the supposition that the homicide was in the wil- derness with only his wife and an infant, this would be, to say the least of it, rather a gratuitous labor, to be pre- paring for generations yet unborn, especially as he must have had to procure sustenance for his family, by either tillage or hunting. But on the assumption that he was surrounded by his people, nothing could be more proba- ble or reasonable, not only that a fit dwelling place should be erected for habitation, but also for defence, and that he should call it after his son Enoch, to confirm the fealty of the tribe to their infant chief. With the creation of man closed the sixth Epjch. and as the next two chapters, with the exception of the temptation and the death of Abel, are mostly occupied with a genealogical tree, I shall abstain from entering on them, as being beside the matter in hand, and un- connected with the science of Geology, but proceed at once to inquire into the Mosaic account of the Noachiau Deluge. ill i — 32 — THE NOAOHIAN DELUGE, Thr events into tho detail of the history of which we are now about to examine, are no loss than those which took place at the last great convulsion to which our G lobe has been subjected. We shall enter on tho examination of the Scriptural texts as connected with OeoloKy and Natural History, on the same principle as adopted in the foregoing Trea- tise on the six Epochs of creation, viz. : That the works of the Almighty Father can never falsify his word. The more or the deeper we look into the Natural Sci- ences, the stronger we find their confirmation of Holy Writ, if read and understood in a liberal manner; but if we read tho Mosaic IJible in the literal way in which the greater portions of tho New Testament may be read, we shall find as to tho scientific portions, that one part contradicts another, on account of the real nature of things not being then known. I will give one example'. The rotundity and motion of our Globe. I believe in these enlightened times there are few who will deny this fact, yet it is not many centuries since it was dangerous to life and limb to broach such an idea. Look at the difficulties the great Columbus had to surmount, when his theories on this point led him to attempt a voyage to an unknown world. JiOok at the fulminations thundered from the Vatican on all who dared to broach such an heretical doctrine, when Galileo was forced to recant on his bare knees before an assembled crowd his enlightened opinions, and who when rising muttered to his few surrounding friends. "But it does move!" And why was this? They feared for the truth of the Scriptures, because they read them literally. — sa- in the 10th Chapter of the Book of Joshua, 12th and and 13th verses, Joshua commands the Sun and Moon to stand still Now as far as regards night and day, the Sun does actually stand still, although he may be in progression in an orbit, which progression does not in the least concern us. If there was any thing stood still during this miraculous prolongation of light, it must have been the Earth ; but had the Israelitish loader com- manded the earth to be stationary, no one would have kaown what he meant ; and in fact he himself not being aware of its motion would not give it a command, but rather addressed himself to that body whose motions he fancied ho understood. Would it not be probable that this wonderful exten- sion of light may have been effected by the refraction of the Sun's rays upon masses of cloud, rather than by the Globe ceasing to revolve on its axis, as in this case a simultaneous cessation of all the laws of nature must have obtained, as otherwise all loose matter, both animate and inanimate, must have flown off into space at the rate of 1,000 miles an hour, that being abont the speed at which our Equator is whirling along. ■ Having made this digression to shew how careful we must be in taking literal readings, we will return to our subject and commence with the Almig'jty's revelation of himself to Noah previoufi to the Deluge. 6th Chap. Genesis, 13th verse—" And behold I will destroy them with the earth. " The m<3re proper translation of this vers*) is, '• I will destroy them and the earth with them." It appears by this that the term earth does not here sig- nify the Globe, but the land then inhabited by man. Vide 1st Chap. 10th verse—" And God called the dry .ana earth ; j.t was therefore the destruction of the ancient Continents, which in the account of the Creation ^ '^'*'V'j^^---^mbits^^ * *»-tmm m-Mm^-mmmtf- .i»m-00 cube foot. As we have condensed the totality of brute life into sheep, purposely to admit of their consuming hay (this being the nearest approach to a green herb which can be arrived at) I do not think it can be considered as too abundant a supply to give each a daily allowance of 4 pounds of hay and one quart of water for his sustenance. Each ton of hay will measure about 150 cube feet and each cubic foot contains 25 quarts of water. There are in Museums alone 6,000 species of the fea- thered tribes, this number multiplied by 14 gives 84.000 individuals to be provided for. The respiration of birds being more active than that of Mammalia, as evinced by their well known higher tempe- rature, they require for their size a larger consumption of oxygen, and it must not bo forgotten in granting allow- ance of air to each being that there was but one window and one door to the Ark, which were shut, vide 16th verso 6th chapter, and I6th verse 7th chapter. I therefore propose to allow each bird a space of 25 cube feet, whicjh is lass than a yard, l-6th of a pint of corn, and the same proportion of water can hardly be considered too much for the daily consumption of each. The thickness of the exterior walls of the vessel, the interior divisions, roof and decks, also the width of stairs and passages to admit of ingress to the different pens and cages, together with space for some two or three thousand tons of ballast has to be deducted from the allotments of the animals. The following statement will show the preceding cal- ' '••*""*ax iviiu, ail parbSi oi UUQareGS Deiug dispensed with:— »«"■ • ! — 36 — Family of Noah. Eight persons at 800 cube feet each, 6,400 Provisions and water 600 7,000, Beasts. 6,500 sheep at 500 cube ft., 2,600,000 4,364 tons hay at 150 " 654,600 611,000 gallons water at 25 \ „ „. . quarts to the cube foot. J ^^'^"^ 3,352,300 Birds. 84,000 birds at 25 cube feet, 2,100,000 5,264,000 pints corn ) ( at 50 pints ) 210,500 5,264,000 " water j ) per foot / 2,310,500 Total space required 5,669,800 Dimensions of the Arlt 1,518,750 Deficient space 4,151,058 By this calculation we perceive that the Ark would not contain the birds alone, that there are above four Djillion of cube feet short, and that nearly three vessels of the specified dimensions would be requisite to perform the service required. We have besides omitted four great classes of life. 1st. The extinct Mammalia, including many of most gigantic size, and larger than any at present existing. 2nd. Reptiles, fossil and modern. 3rd. Insects and allied classes, above 100,000 species. 4th. Fresh water Fishes. I shall now touch on a point which I believe has escapeu the notice of most commentators on the subject, namely, the immense amount of labor necessary for feed- — 37 — ing, watering, and cleansing tiie numerous creatures whicli are supposed to have inhabited this great floating menagerie. In the first place we have only eight persons, male and female, to attend on upwards of 80,000 living beings! More than 10,000 to each, and if these poor people worked day and night, without allowing time for sleep or food, they must each have fed and cleaned about seven creatures a minute, or eight seconds for each, in the meantime carrying at least 10,000 lbs. weight of food and water, and 1000 lbs. of manure, in round numbers. The idea of an Angel having been employed in this under- taking every morning has been suggested to me : I ab- stain from entering into the argument, but leave my readers to draw their own conclusion, merely observing that, for my own part, I should object to being an Angel under the circumstances. Having made these few rough calculations to prove the incapacity of the Ark of Genesis holding the germ of our present animal kingdom, I will proceed to shew other reasons why neither the extinct or the ifving tribes could have been tenants of this mighty ship. It will, I opine, be admitted, that if Noah had taken mto his vessel (supposing it could have contained them) some of all creatures that ever had been on earth, there would of course be their descendants contemporaneous with ourselves. Where are the Elephantine forms, whose debris are scattered over_our Continents, from the frozen shores of the Northern Ocean to the banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi ? Where are those herds of giant Cervi, whose branch- ing Antlers have tossed in pride through our ancient fo- rests 1 Where are those vast Bovidoe, who with one stamp of their mighty foot could have scared our fiercest Bulls, .....7':,. Ai^ Hi It J ||: ■)' — 38 — save perhaps the Lithuanian Aurocks, or the Bison of the Susquehanna! Where are they? And more again. Where are the Sons of the gigantic Saurians, who fed on the forests of our island, and basked upon our coasts? Where are the Tapirine tribes of France ? Where the yrsinse of the ca\'es of Germany, and the Hyaenas of England ? They have passed away, leaving no trace of jfcheir ex- istence, but their shattered skeletons. Not one is left to brook the sway of man upon that Earth, where his huge progenitors both lived and died masterless. I dare not commence to recapitulate the hosts of the dead. I know not where to begin. We are not in a land where the bones of the mighty ones are ready to vouch for my assertions. But England has swarmed with a Guana 70 feet in length, her seas have been devastated by monsters half Lizard and half Fish, between whose jaws of iron, the strongest Shark of the Tropic would have striven in vain for life. A huge Tortoise has existed of 12 feet in length, who could have borne with ease the mightiest Elephant that earth ever saw. Europe has teemed with nine species of extinct Rhinoceri, the Hippopotami varied from the size of a Swine to the modern standard. Another Elephant was there, from whose enormous jaws protruded tusks 12 feet in length, and whose hide was clothed with shaggy hair and wool. And last, but not least wonderful, the Lizards rose into the air and flew, waving their expanded wings, and anon plunging in Ocean, tore their prey from its depths. I shall now attempt to shew why those animals at pre- sent alive upon this Globe are not (excepting some of the ruminating tribes,) at all descended from the Ark, totally independent of its size. — 39 — First.— Food proper for the sustenance of the largo Oarnivora of both kingdoms, could not have been pre- served, and the number of other animals taken was not sufficient to supply them, without reference to the former, never being alluded to in the Scriptural Account. The Insectivora also, both quadruped and biped, come undtM- this head as regards difficulty of supply. The Phocido}, or Seals, would also require Fish, and to be kept in great reservoirs of water. These are ani- mals of large bulk, one tribe is about 25 feet long, 15 feet in girth, and would weigh about 20,000 lbs., or nearly double the size of a large Elephant. Second.— Each portion of the present earth has, (be it hot or cold) its animal tril)es for the most part totally dis- tinct, and perfectly consonant to its herbage and its cli- mate ; for example, the Polar Bear and Walrus of the North, the Ornithorhynchus and the Marsupial tribes of AustmMa, and many other forms in all the kingdoms ot nature. Looking at the differences between these crea- tures, and the generality of creation, is it not reasonable to think that ihe command issued in 1st chapter, 24tli verse, for the earth to bring forth the moving creature after hjs kind ! should be in force over the whole Globe, and not be limited to one spot of ground called the Gar- den of Eden. It appears to me that independent of many successive Preadamite creations, each preceding one being swept away, we have had one nearly coeval with that of Man. each set of animals being suitable to the land from which it sprang. From certain tribes of life, both terrestrial and marine, being confined to certain localities, it appears as if not only the living forms, but also those long passed away, had radiated from creative centres. in.ij ' i l-n- — 40 -^ I am aware that this is a new theory, and I am also aware that there will be many dissentients, but to those I will put a few questions. How did the different tribes and species reach their present abodes, after emerging trom the Ark on Ararat? Does any one mean to state that by son-e supernatural gift they knew their way and walked ? Fancy a Walrus trotting from the middle of Asia to the North Pole, and a Puma getting in some man- ner (for I opine he did not swim) to South America ; the Kangaroo and other Marsupials to Oceania, the Bison also to the wilds of the far West, where bye the bye he must have picked up a couple of pair of extra ribs. But supposing for one instant that this was possible, the re- mains of those individuals who died on the road would be found, and in all likelihood some of the species would havQ left their types in the lands they passed through. Now neither of these proofs of travel anywhere occur, there aye m remains of living American Animals scat- tered through the old world, there are no living specimens of these beings to shew that by the increase of animal life around Ararat, individuals were obliged for self pre- servation to emigrate to a distant country. If indeed the animal creation of both hemispheres were similar, there might be some reason to suppose that all sprang from the same source, but we see a difference in the animals, not only in the American Fauna, but also in that of what some please to term the older continents, many of the same genus are specifically distinct. The Elephant of India (jr instance, and his African congener The Zebra and the Quagga! The Bison, the Aurocks, and the Bull. The Jaguar and the Leopard. These and many others whose differences are considered trivial by those who have not studied the subject^ are In fact as much removed from each other as a Fowl from a Phea- — 41 — sant, or a Jackass from a Horse. Few of the existing- tribes resemble entirely their ancient types, the genus may be the same, but the species totally distinct, so much 80 that they never could have sprung the one from the other, any more than a tiger could have risen from a cat. The subject now appears to resolve itself into these two simple statements. If the ancient tribes were preserved in the Ark, wo should see their descendants. We do not ! If the modern tribes were preserved in the Ark, Wf» should find their remains. We do not ! Ergo, neither party could have been there! Then comes the question : What creatures were there ? In all probability, (I will not say entirely,) but for the most part they were confined to goats, sheep, &c., together with some other animals and birds that are useful to^ man. It must be remembered that none of these last mentioned quadrupeds existed prior to the creation of humanity • no goat or sheep was coeval with the Mylodon, the Mam- moth or the Mastodon. The Ruminantia appears to have been confined to giant Stags, and enormous Oxen whose armed brows could have shaken defiance even to the huge Carnivora who sv^rarmed around them. With the exception of those individuals which were preserved in the Ark, from whom our present race of do mestic animals have probably for the most part risen • these creatures were living with Man on the ancient con' tments, and were with him and them submerged iu the womb of the destroying waters. They lived with Man, they died with him, and they never lived without him • and the one who did escape, whil(5 preserving his own life' preserved the lives of those who surrounded him. and wera uecessary to his comfort, and who for the most part wore perhaps his own. il ' 'III — 42 — I think it not improbable that Noah received into the Ark some of all the Brute inhabitants of the Adamite lands, and that there were no dangerous or carnivorous unimals on that part of the world, it must be remembered •u the early stages of human existence that man had n(» arms to cope with the Lion and the Tiger, none of these creatures are mentioned in the Bible history, and I think wo may safely consider that the Almighty only created around man those creatures which he could with ease control, and which lived on the green herb. On the broad islands of that early sea many forms of power roamed.many a stately Elephant browsed on their forests, many a lordly Lion roared unheard by man through their tangled glades, then as now the huge Rhinoceros stood on the desert plains of his native Africa, and the brutal Hippopotamus wallowed in its mire. I will make one quotation to show that Moses clearly understood and to my reading clearly expresses that there were many animals in existence at the time Noah left .the Ark, besides those that were with him. In the 9th chapter of Genesis, 9th and 10th verses : " And behold I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you, and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with i/ou, from all that go out of the Ark to every beast of the earth." ' Does not the repetition of the words "with you," joined to the expression of " all that go out of the Ark," establish an evident distinction between the species of animals which Noah had taken into the Ark and which had come out of it with him and " All the beasts of the earth." Passing from the animal kingdom we will next proceed to examine into the action of the Deluge itself, in rela- h: — 43 — tion to the past and present land. From the extraordi- nary fall of water for forty days and forty nights, there resulted only a first inundation of the habitable parts of the land, which " bore up the Ark, and it wap, lifted above the Earth." This part rela.es only to the conti- nuance of the rain, and here would have terminated the inundation, had it been produced by the rain only But " The fountains of the great deep were broken up '^ "The waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered." The expression - under the whole heaven," signifies only the whole horizon of the inhabited lands, for Wi- must not forget that the sphericity of the earth was then unknown to its inhabitants. The first upheaval of land above the surface of ocean by vast subterranean forces necessarily left large tracks cavernous beneath, so when at the commencement of the Deluge these caverns were first partially broken up, the gases escajnng from their recesses and mingling with the atmospheric air, occa- sioned the great fall of water mentioned above. The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep or sea, shew that the disruptive power of earthquakes pro- gressed with increased energy at this period; down sank the plam and mountain, the city and the forest, to find a tearful grave in their own vast interior; dragging to de- struction their manifold hosts of life !~Down went the Man and the Brute in one overwhelming ruin, mingling; their shrieks of terror with the roar of the advancing waters ; on came the waves of the ancient ocean bursting over the sinking forest and the tottering hill, swamping the ruins of the Earthquake, and the fires of the volcano *.""" » '«"-^n«imuaB maasus 10 snroud Jor ever from the sight of man the terrific tomb that their incensed Creator prepared in wrath foi- our primeval fathers ! I! — 44 — I am aware that the usually conceived idea of this fear ul catastrophe is, that the whole world as it at prese".' "ct„er„;,h "*-' ^ '"'"'•■^ of doubting the cor- Se the il """"""•^ """"^ !»-'"^' ■-.nitnato am t 1 i „ ll !r""i""" '"" '"' ™'''^'^ ''"''^ from lU anci,.n M U > t'' x'?'"'"^'' *'' " '''''"' the winds and cnn-onts if, , "'""■ ""■">■ "'' •vi"<-f"s longllZf jn,au„ ,,„ua^,s a n,,)^ „^ ^^^^ beneath our present chores would stretch far away the new bom praTrier, ^n! — 48 — other climate would exert its influence on our mountain tops according to tlie altitude above the ocean level; our tropical plants, the cane, the aloe, and the cocoanut, would have to descend where now rolls the waves of the broad Atlantic; the summits of our little hills then would be- come the ice capped tops of a mighty range of mountains, around whose stormy brows the winds of unnumbered winters would heap eternal snow ; eternal, or until such time as the will of the great Father should doom them to smk beneath those waters from whose deep recesses thev hrst sprang to light. The supposition of the continent of Asia having been the site of the Adamite lands, has of itself produced many unbelievers from the numberless difficulties in which its supporters find themselves involved when they bnng their theory into collision with Geological facts. Not the least appearance of the remains of any being destroyed by the Grand Deluge is to be found in Asia or anywhere else ; all fossils are considered by some people to be the debris of the flood, they do not consider that it IS impossible for any amount of water to wash a bone, a shell, or a fish, into the interior of a hard rock ; they as- sert that the bones of a man are of a different texture from those of other animals, and that therefore his de- oayed whilst the others were preserved : this assertion does not happen to be a fact. But the skeleton of man would be the least part of his remains that we should look for. Where are the ruins of his cities ? Where are his works in iron, and in brass ? Where are his harps and organs ? Would not in some part of the Asiatic 'con f- nen (covered as it has long been with the troops of Bri- tain) be found some small trophys of the doomed race i Not one IS there ! Not one sign of man! nor uf any uryacure wnose existence is coeval with his I mountain BVel; our ut, would ;he broad ^ould be- ountains, umbered itil such them to ses thev ng been roduced Itiea in en thev 1 facts, being Asia or people that it bone, a ley as- exturo lis »* "P for upwards of a Reader, do you, can you believe that vast series of « rata many thousand fcet in thieicness, pHe abo e ^llf :« ; "itT''^'''' -'^ ""-^^ "^ aead.we':e^:r:e:,?:'n' r o„ !! it '"^ f ™" ^'"'''^ of which your mountains irt tompo^od-loolt at Ihe vast forests which have been ™bme^ed to form the fields of coal which are spread sh II rffit^, Tr T '^"'-"'"•'' "'^ fragments 0^- rhnd and" i"' "' ''™''~"" ""''•'""'^"auts 01 a land and an ocean long passed away. Canyon believe the flood placed them there? Can you beheve that in one short year a Deluge co , d h.ve the side of winch, those which surround you arc bntal Anthdls-andyetnot have had the power to wash ll leaves off an Olive tree. Reader, you may still doubt. But wait until you have bris of the g,ant dead, till you have stood, as I have ^one amidst the relics of a bygone world, until the on,' felt awestruck atthe thought that once „he pulses bea and the blood ran warm in those colossal ormsltha eyes of beauty and of fire flashed light f,,,„, thoe empty retl^r^rs.'"™^"'^""'"'*^"'^^-''"-^'- Then und not till then disbelieve the niij^htv i^Kiidren of Creation's God. monstrous