means of destroying utterly the huge animal forms which had previously abounded on the western continent. He attributes the inundation to the upheaval of the Cordilleras. For the uplifting of the mountain chain-of which at the era referred to there is no proof, and which of itself does not seem to account for the effects assigned to it-let there be substituted the deluge indicated in the ninth verse of the Bible, and Orbigny's theory satisfies the conditions of the problem. At least the writer may be allowed to express the pleasure with which he found that the opinion of the Pampas he had drawn chiefly from the Book of Genesis, was in substantial agreement with the conclusions the eminent Frenchman had deduced from his careful scientific investigation of the South American continent.*

"En résumé, je pense que les grands mammifères des Pampas ne sont pas sur lieu natal et qu'ils y ont été amenes, non par les courans fluviaux, mais à la suite de la catastrophe géologique qui les a tous anéantis d'un seul coup."—Orbigny's Voyage, vol. III., part 4, p. 151.

"Faisons, ensuite, succéder tout à coup, au repos complet de la nature, une de ces grandes catastrophes du globe, comme, par exemple, le soulèvement des Cordillères et nous aurons, pour résultat immédiat, l'anéantissement de tous les êtres sur cette partie du monde, le grand dépôt argileux des Pampas."-Ibid, vol. III., part 3, p. 81.

"On pourrait croire qu'il y a en alors une seule et méme cause de destruction pour tous les animaux terrestres du continent Américain, et que cette cause se trouve dans les grandes purturbations apportées à la surface du sol, à l'instant du soulévement des Cordilléres. S'il n'en était pas ainsi, il serrait difficile de concevoir et de se rendre compte de ces deux faits importans; d'un côté l'anéantissement fortuit et simultané des grands animaux terrestres qui peuplaient les continens Américains; de l'autre, cet amas immense de l'argile pampéune.”—Ibid, p. 82.

“Le terrain pampéen est le dernier dépôt de grande importance qui ait précédé l'époque actuelle."-Ibid, vol. III., part 3, p. 255.

This writer seems to believe that to similar inundations, previous great changes are to be ascribed.

"M. Elie de Beaumont a conçu la haute pensée que de la fin de chaque période géologique était toujours produite par les reliefs des différens systèmes qui sillonent le globe. On voit, dès lors, que les résultats paléon

If the notions embodied in this Essay be deemed worthy of investigation, they will give rise to a variety of curious problems, besides those that have been suggested, e.g.

Given a flood in New Hampshire in the year 1826, which in some places excavated the road to the depth of from 15 to 20 feet, and in others covered it with earth, &c. to as great a height, and owing to which the water flowed for many weeks after as densely charged with earth as it could be without being changed into mud;—given also a flood originating in one of the tributaries of the Rhone, by which some of the houses in Martigny were filled with mud up to the second story-let it be determined what would be the probable effect in deposits of mud, gravel, &c., of a universal cataclysm.

Again, given a small stream among the Cheviot hills greatly swollen, transporting several thousand tons weight of gravel and sand to the plain of the Till, and sweeping stones weighing from half to three quarters of a ton each two miles down the river:given also the river Don, forcing a mass of four or five hundred tons of stones, many of them two or three hundred pounds weight up an inclined plane rising six feet in eight or ten yards :-given further an earthquake wave which shall tear up large slabs of sandstone, and throw them high on the beach, or roll before it great boulders of granite:-let it be determined what would be the boulder formations, if just before the human era there were a universal flood.*

tologiques généraux observés au noveau et sur l'ancien monde, viennent complètement corroborer cette opinion."-Ibid, vol. III., part 4, p. 177.

For the data of these problems, see Lyell's Principles of Geology, Edition of 1830, vol. 1., pp. 193-4; Seventh Edition, p. 196; Ninth Edition, p. 208; and Darwin's Observations, p. 69.

If it should be said that man was contemporary with some of the kinds of animals embedded in the recent formations of South America, it is sufficient in reply to cite the words uttered by the President of the British Association on the 6th of September, 1865:

"First let us be sure of the facts, and especially of that main fact upon which all the argument involving immensity of time really turns, viz. the contemporaneous existence of man with the mammoth of the plains and the bear of the caverns. The remains of man are certainly buried with those of extinct quadrupeds; but did they live in the same days, or do we see relics of different periods gathered into one locality by natural processes at a later date, or confused by the operations of men ?"

The author has perhaps been floundering amid difficulties which his ignorance prevents him from feeling. He will be neither surprised nor disheartened if it should be shewn that his hypothesis cannot, without very great modification, be accepted even as a tentative theory; but will be more than satisfied if he have succeeded in shewing that there exist valid reasons for inquiring whether this globe were not the scene, in times geologically recent, of far more extensive changes than scientific men have imagined: changes indicated in the Biblical evidence offered in the next section.

SECTION 3.

In this section, the scriptural record of the creation of the world is to be examined.

Our great lexicographer defines the word 'earth,'1. The element distinct from air, fire, or water; soil; terrene matter.

The smiling God is seen; while water, earth,

And air attest his bounty.-THOMSON.

2. The terraqueous globe; the world.

This solid globe we live upon is called the earth, which word, taken in a more limited sense, signifies such parts of this globe as are capable, being exposed to the air, to give rooting and nourishment to plants, so that they may stand and grow in it.-LOCKE.

With precisely the same flexibility of meaning is the term employed in the opening page of the Bible. "In the beginning God created the earth," that is, the world. But when the word is used distinctively, it bears the first of the two senses given above. "God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he seas."

This mundane system would be wholly unsuited to its purpose, if it comprised only the dry land and the seas. It is invested with an atmosphere; which, rising far above the mountain tops, rotates with it daily, and travels with it in its annual sweep around their common centre, the sun. This atmosphere is a creation alike beneficent and marvellous; being compounded chiefly of two elements, either of which severed from the other would be death to all things living. It claims our admiration for its strength, not less than our gratitude for its worth. Its estimated weight is equal to that of a globe of lead sixty miles in diameter: yet by reason of its elasticity, it is buoyant, not crushing; and it carries in its expanse, so as to render them innocuous and serviceable to man, the prodigious masses of vapour that float above us. Who has not known the inhabitants of an extensive district retiring to rest on a winter's evening, the whole scene around them blackened by the frost; and finding that same district, in the grey light of morning, covered with a very thick garment of the purest whiteness? How strong that heaven which bare up the immense weight above them; or permitted it to fall, only with

the noiseless step of the snow-storm! Majestic is the sea, fathomless in its depths, ceaseless in its roll, and in its tumult terrific. Great is the strength of the hills; but not less to be admired that firmament which is the stay of the clouds, the home of the winds, the secret place of thunder. "God called the firmament,

Heaven."

To assume that in the first verse of the Bible the word 'heaven' denotes the whole stellar regions, while it is declared, and by divine authority, to mean the firmament which divides the waters from the waters, is rather to supplement than interpret the narrative. By the strictest and fairest process of interpretation, we learn that the writer is about to describe those operations, by which this world was prepared to be the dwelling-place of mankind. There is, in the statement of the subject, no reference to the origin of material existence; nor to sun, moon, or stars. "In the beginning God created the heaven"-i.e. the firmament-" and the earth." That is the work divine of which the author, taught of God, is about to give us the details, and which he affirms that Omnipotence completed in six days.

In the second verse of the Bible we are taught that the world was, and told what it was, before its reconstruction as described in the Book of Genesis. Very short is the description, but of inestimable worth; for it contains the only authentic written record of the Pre-Adamite earth. God, who revealed by the Prophets things far in the distance of futurity, and by Paul disclosed "the eternal purpose which he purposed in Jesus Christ our Lord," has told us what was the state of this planet before the song of the morning stars, and the joyful shout of the sons of God, celebrated the newly fashioned world. "The earth