bones of quadrupeds and land animals; thus manifesting that these were formed or diffused subsequently to the preceding. All these, according to the subterraneous remains, were distinct from our present plants and animals, and were destroyed before these arose. The quadruped remains, which most resemble our existing species, are in the uppermost beds of the destroyed world, and have clearly perished in water, and been buried in rocks that were formed amid a watery commotion, and no human remains have been discovered in the more ancient beds. All the successions of the rocks carry the marks of a deliberate creation from the granite upward. The testimony of geology being thus far, and in their essential matters, in harmony with the Mosaic history, it is my inference that the minor facts and circumstances will be found as capable of adjustment with it, as soon as the science, yet but in its healthy and growing childhood, has become sufficiently enlarged and matured. All opposing allegations are entitled to no higher rank than that of ingenious arguments, plausible conjectures, sanguine imaginations, and hasty inferences; with no small proportion of controversial competitions, rather impatient of dissent.

It is a confirmation of these feelings that such men of modern science and established reputation as the celebrated Cuvier and Dr. Buckland, as well as others of great ability and information, have avowed their belief of the disputed catastrophe. This conclusion satisfies my judgment that

*

* Among these, the published opinions of the Rev. W. Conybeare and Ad. Sedgwick entitle me to add their names to the distinguished geologists who have accredited the deluge; but to my surprise I read in Mr. Boue's late publication, what I think must be as erroneous and unjust as to them, as it obviously is to the English clergy in general. "The idea of a universal deluge, Mosaic or historical, is not sustainable. Such is the opinion of most of the geologists on the continent. The proofs of its absurdity are so evident, that for a long time the Lutheran clergy have given it up. At length the English clergy, the most tenacious of all, have surrendered their arms. They have at last acknowledged by the organ of Mr. Sedgwick and Mr. Conybeare, that if there have been deluges, they have not been general; and that the Mosaic deluge, if it ever so took place as it is related, could in no case produce the ancient alluvions, or the pretended diluvium."

He cites as his authority for his assertion, "Voyez le Discours de M. Sedgwick à la Société Geologique de Londres, pour 1831, et Ann. de Phil. Mars, 1831."-A Boue, Mem. Geol. v. i. p. 149. Paris, 1832.

Nothing can be more untrue than to say that the English clergy have given up the belief of the Mosaic deluge, or made any one their organ

there is nothing even at present in true geology, which calls upon us to disbelieve it, or which puts us under any necessity of opposing real science if we do not. This conviction settles my opinion that it is fully consistent with the greatest geological knowledge and sagacity to accredit it; and that with such scientific patronage in favour of its probability, it would be abandoning the rules of sound judgment not to let the sacred authorities, and the historical and traditional memorials of it, have their full and deciding impression. We find likewise that new facts are occurring which are likely to introduce new views among our intelligent geologists, and to cause material alterations to be made in many parts of their former theories, and which will bring them into greater coincidence with the Mosaic intimations.* Some of our men of science may err in having less regard for these than their truth and authority claim; but they are so activeminded and zealous in exploring and examining the rocky masses and remains, and so justly determined to abandon

to express such a renunciation. I do not think that either Mr. Sedgwick or Mr. Conybeare, men of deserved reputation, has ever relinquished the belief.

The fossil remains in the limestone of Burdie House, near Edinburgh, are instances of the new facts and reasonings which the con-tents of a single rock may suddenly and unexpectedly introduce into geology, and of the alterations of many favourite theories which had been previously asserted. Dr. Hibbert showed this to differ materially from the common carboniferous limestone of marine origin, and to form a species of deposite of a fluviatile character. Among the organic fossils "were more particularly observed the remains of fresh water fish, resembling the cyprinidæ. There also appeared to be in this deposite an immensity of very minute crustaceous and shell animals. Besides these animals, a remarkable variety of fossil plants, imbedded in the limestone, were exhibited, indicative of the vegetation of a tropical country. A tooth was found in a fragment of the rock two inches and a quarter in length, like that of a Saurian animal."

Mr. Conybeare truly characterized this as one of the most important discoveries lately made in geology.-Phil. Mag. Jan. 1834.

"It referred the existence of reptiles, allied more or less to the crocodile, to a period much earlier than had been generally supposed by geologists; and at the same time showed that these immense animals Inust have coexisted, coeval perhaps with the very earliest vegetable state of our globe. It was of importance also, as referring fluviatile deposites so far back as to a series of formations, amid which they had scarcely yet been imagined to exist; and had consequently given strength to opinions, then but newly entertained, of the existence of local deposites, such as those furnished by estuaries, or fresh water basins, in almost every geological group of the sedimentary order."Lit. Gazette, 1834, p. 704.

VOL. II.-Z

every notion which new occurrences disprove, that we can have no reason to doubt that in due time all that is authentic in sacred history, and all that has really taken place in nature, will be found in perfect harmony with each other, and that the phenomena will gradually come to light that will illustrate and reconcile both. Let us in the mean time patiently wait for this satisfying and enlightening result.

LETTER XIX.

Remarks on the Extravagant Systems of Geological Chronology—And on the impossibility of Natural Agencies forming the world without a Directing Intelligence.

THAT the present human race has arisen since the last great change which our globe has undergone, is the conclusion of some of the latest French geologists, who reason only from the appearances in the subterraneous strata and in their fossil remains. This deduction corresponds with the Mosaic account, that Noah and his three sons were preserved from the deluge, and that every branch of the human population which has since existed, has originated from them.

Mr. F. Cuvier says of his brother, the celebrated Baron Cuvier, "Every authentic observation that has been accumulated up to the present moment, has convincingly corroborated the conclusion which has been established by my brother, that the human species was subsequent to the last of the catastrophes which has laid bare our present continent."--Prelim. Observ. to Cuvier on Fossil Bones, 4th edit. Engl. 1834, p. 3. Mr. Alex. Brongniart likewise states his opinion, that "the last Geognostic period, during which the bark of the globe has been in a state of repose, has the commencement of its date at least 4000 years ago."-P. 9. "This state of repose constitutes the Jovian epocha," p 31, which he calls "the post diluvian period."--Brogn. Tabl. des Terrains, p. 27. He places the beginning of his Jovian period at the birth of mankind.-P. 28. Mr. Boubée, Geological Professor at Paris in 1833, also states, that "Man appeared on the earth a little after this catastrophe;" but thinks, "that he was not existing on the earth before the great deluge; or, rather, that nothing proves that he was then in existence upon it."--Geol. Populaire, pp. 57, 58. He also prefers to suppose that the universal deluge, which he admits, was more ancient than the mentioned by Moses.

It has been inferred by some that there was no antediluvian race, because no fossil human bones of that antiquity have yet come to light; but their absence does not disprove the existence of mankind between the creation and the deluge; it only indicates that they were not living in those sites where these strata have been examined, as there are now many parts of Asia, Africa, and even America, without them. Human existence began in the east. The rocky beds of Asia have not yet been penetrated or examined like those of Europe; nor is there any evidence that the antediluvian race were either a very numerous or a very dispersed population. They may have densely inhabited a few particular regions, or some of those islands which several geologists are inclined to consider as having composed the primitive dry land. It follows of course from these remarks, that until we know and explore the real localities in which they were dwelling, we shall not find any human fossil bones. Thus our present geological science does not invalidate the Hebrew history of the antediluvian world.*

We perceive that it is still the appointed law of nature in this respect, that in all the countries of the earth to which man has not spread, it shall be preoccupied universally by plants, and mostly by animals also; everywhere, indeed, by birds and insects at least, and every sea by shellfish. We also find that the human population has always very gradually diffused itself; and that in all the regions whose commencing population we have witnessed or can trace, they have had to clear the soil of its previous occupants, before they could dwell comfortably upon it. We may therefore be sure that the primeval state of all the antediluvian dry land was that of copious and successive vegetation, long before man could be on every part of it; that animals must have enjoyed this provided feast long before he could reach it;

* The Baron Cuvier's sensible remarks on this subject deserve citation" All these tend to confirm the assertion, that the human race did not exist in the countries where fossil bones are found, at the epoch of the revolutions which buried those bones; but I do not wish to conclude that man did not exist previous to this epoch. He might have inhabited some confined tract of country, whence he repeopled the world after these terrible events. Perhaps the places in which he dwelt have been entirely swallowed up, and his bones buried at the bottom of the present seas. with the exception of the small number of individuals who have propagated the species."--Cuvier on Fossil Bones, v. i. p. 77.

and that wherever the waters were resting or flowing, fish, and saurians, and phocæ, and the testaceous and crustaceous tribes, and all kinds of aqueous plants, must have been its first inhabitants, and so have remained as long as man was not there. They were created to be so; they were formed to be his predecessors. He was the latest made; he always spreads himself far less rapidly than they do; they have often preceded him by many ages. The vast continent of New-Holland is an evidence of this. Although it is nearly as large as any of the before known quarters of the world, yet it is in the largest portion almost wholly uninhabited; a very thin and scattered population, in the rudest and most destitute state, are now found in wandering divisions upon it, in the present late period of our earthly chronology. No authenticated facts in geology carry the present mode_and state of human society beyond that period at which the Jewish history places the deluge, from which the subsequent propagation of mankind began.* Geology and this history are, therefore, not at variance on this great point.

No one doubts or disputes that the various rocks and strata which compose our surface have been produced or deposited in succession, one after the other; the upper upon the lower at some intervals of time, greater or less. It is as generally admitted that at some periods after these depositions and formations, such of them as exhibit veins of granite, trap, or other matter, have been pierced and entered by these intruding substances. In like manner, if any of these rocks or beds have been raised up into hills or mountains, these elevations have been made after their masses had been deposited in the formation of the surface. Every geologist assenting to these facts, the only point on which differences of opinion have arisen concerning them, has been as to the time or times in which these several events took place. On this there is but little agreement, and it is on this subject that

* Baron Cuvier's ideas coincide with this view. "In closely examining what has taken place on the surface of the globe since it was left dry for the last time, whence continents have assumed their present form, at least in the highest parts, we clearly see that the last revolution, and consequently the establishment of present society, cannot be very ancient. It is one of those results, which, though most clearly proved, is the least regarded, in sound geology: a result the most valuable, as it unites in an unbroken chain, natural and civil history."-Cuvier Foss. Bones, p. 78.