Asm-

YALE UNIVERSI i \
LIBRARY

CONSISTENCY

DISCOVERIES OF MODERN GEOLOGY,

WITH THE

SACRED HISTORY OF THE CREATION AND THE DELUGE;

BEING A

SUPPLEMENT TO THE SECOND AMERICAN FROM THE FOURTH

ENGLISH EDITION OF

BAKEWELL'S GEOLOGY.

BY PROFESSOR SILLIMAN,
OF yALE COLLEGE.

NEW HAVEN:
PRINTED BY HEZEKIAH HOWE & CO.
1833.

(3) 8-3 OS

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

An outline of the annual course of geological lectures in Yale Col
lege, was annexed to the former American edition of this work, pub
lished in 1829, and was designed, primarily, for the use of the students.
That short tract, including important additions to facts and some modi
fications of opinion in regard to theory, would have been revised and
annexed to the present edition, had not the principal work been so
much augmented by the anthor, as to render it inexpedient to make it
materially larger.
An eleinentary treatise, presenting a copious, but condensed, gener
alization of the geology of this continent, and sustained by numerous
and precise facts, is a desideratum.
Mr. Maclure, many years ago, led the way by a masterly sketch,
covering a large part of the United States, and of some of the adja
cent provinces and islands.
Professor Eaton has given us many valuable facts, relating, princi
pally, to the state of New York and to New England ; and recently,
Professor Hitchcock, with the advantage of all the lights held out by
his predecessors, has ably detailed, in an octavo volume, the geology
of Massachusetts.
We have many good memoirs on particular districts ; they are to
be found in scientific journals, in books of travels, especially of the
scientific expeditions sent out by the American government, in the
transactions of learned societies, in detached pulications, and some
times even in the newspapers. These materials are of great value ;
but much more must be done before they will be sufficiently copious
to enable some master spirit to reduce the whole subject to order, and
thus to give a full and digested account of American geology. Foreign
geologists will do us the justice to remember, that our field is vast,
while our laborers are comparatively few, and they are, generally, men
occupied by other pursuits ; this country is rarely explored by those
whom fortune leaves at ease to follow a favorite pursuit. The learn
ed leisure of Europe, and especially of England, is her6 almost un
known, and our most efficient cultivators of science are also laborers

4 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
in other fields. Still, when we remember that geology, as a regular
science, is, in every country of Europe, of recent origin; and that, m
the United States, most of its early cultivators are still on the stage,
we have great reason to take courage and work on.
On the present occasion, we will annex some remarks on the nature
of geological evidence, and its consistency with sacred history, making
use of some portions of the " Outline.''^
Statement of the subject.
By some, tliis discussion may perhaps be now regarded as obso
lete. In the minds of well instructed geologists, this is probably, to
a great extent, true. Still, the Vindiciai Geologic^ and the Reliquia;
Diluvianaj of Professor Buckland, the Preliminary Discourse to Man-
tell's first volume on the Geology of Sussex, that of Phillips in his
Geology of Yorkshire, that of Conybeare and Phillips in their Outline
of the Geology of England and Wales, some of the lectures of Cu-
vier, and of late, the Geology of Dr. Ure, the Mosaic and Mineral
Geology of Penn and of Higgins, besides the distinct work of Chau-
bard, " Offrant la concordance des faits historiques avec les faits geo-
logiques," and various others of earlier date, sufficiently prove, that
the subject is not quite at rest in Europe.
\ In this country, the cultivation of scientific geology is of so recent
a date, that many of our most intelligent and well educated people
are strangers even to its elements ; are unacquainted with its amazing
store of facts, and are startled, when any other geological epochs are
spoken of than the creation and the deluge, recorded in the penta-
teuch. But, it is beyond a doubt, that there are innumerable and de
cisive proofs of successive revolutions, and of a gradual progress in
the course of geological events, implying, on the whole, a regular
order in the formation of the crust of the planet, interrupted by oc
casional disorder and convulsion. These events necessarily imply
^ much lime, and cannot be referred, exclusively, to any course of dilu-
lyial action. It is impossible, for instance, upon any sound principles
of philosophical reasoning, to refer to this cause, the extensive, vari
ous and interesting class of facts, relating chiefly to the consolidated
rocks composed of water-worn ruins and fragments, and to those con
taining organized remains, in a mineralized state, entombed in the firm
strata and mountains. This is a vast field of observation and instruc
tion, and it is less known, even to the greater number of intellectual
persons, than almost any department of knowledge. None but geol
ogists study it with diligence, and none who have not made themselves

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 6
masters of the facts, are qualified to judge of their importance and of
their bearing. The subject requires, for full illustration, the study
and exhibition of a great mass of facts, either in the fields, mines and
mountains, or, as an imperfect substitute, in the cabinet. Persons
who are entirely ignorant of this species of information, are destitute
of the means of forming a correct judgment on the subject; they can
never have acquired the habit of comparing one fact in geology with
another, and of thus estimating their relation to each other, and to the
entire planet. On the subject of geology, it is, therefore, very diffi
cult to find access, to many minds, otherwise enlightened, and habitu
ated to receive and weigh evidence, with candor and intelhgence.
The reason obviously is, that they are not in possession of the first
elementary conceptions ; and when the facts are stated, if they are
not denied, they are neglected, because they are inconsistent with
previous and habitual impressions ; thus they fail to make the impres
sion on the mind which they must always produce, when fully under
stood and realized.
Ih this country, where the moral feeling of the people is iden
tified with reverence for the scriptures, the questions are often agi
tated : — When did the great series of geological events happen 1 If
the six days of the creation were insufficient in time, and the events
cannot all be referred to a deluge, to what period and to what state
of things shall we assign them ? This is a fair topic of enquiry, and
demands a satisfactory answer. This answer is given by the whole
series of geological facts, and the question will never remain of doubt
ful issue in the mind of any one who has fully studied and mastered
them. The subject of geology is possessed of such high interest, that
it will not be permitted to slumber; it will proceed with increasing
energy and success ; a great number of powerful minds and immense
research are now employed upon it, and many collateral branches of
science are made tributary to its progress, j Its conclusions have been
supposed to jar with the scripture history : this is contemplated with
alarm and displeasure by some, and with satisfaction by a few ; but
there is no cause for either state of feeling : the supposed disagreement
is not real; it is only ap_parent. It is founded upon the popular mis
take, that, excepting the action of a deluge and of ordinary causes still
in operation, this world was formed as we now see it, and that all its
immense and various deposits were made in a very short period of time.
Both these are fundamental errors, which have misled-bpth the learned
and the unlearned, and are still extensively prevalent^ Although the
materials were created by almighty power, they were evidently left

6 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
to the operation of physical laws, which laws also affected, more or
less, the fate of the various races of plants and animals that were suc
cessively called into existence. But, there is no reason to believe
that any part of the crust of the earth, reaching even to a fathom
less depth, is now in the condition in which it was originally made ;
every portion has been worked over and brought into new forms,
and these changes have arisen from the action of those physical laws
which the Creator established, and which are as truly his work, as
the materials upon which they operate. The amount of time is the
only difficulty, and this will vanish before an enlarged and reasonable
view of the whole subject, taken both in its geological and historical
bearings. Nature of the evidence.
The evidence is the same which is readily admitted as satisfactory
in the case of historical antiquities.
Roman coins, weapons, personal ornaments, utensils, baths, roads,
camps and military walls, and defences of various kinds, have been
frequently discovered in Britain. They are ascertained to be Roman,
by their resemblance to, or identity with, the acknowledged produc
tions of that remarkable people, as still existing in Italy and the ad
jacent countries, the ancient seat of their dominion. Had Julius Ce
sar and the other Roman historians and writers been silent as to the
Roman invasion of Britain, and as to the Roman dominion, which,
for more than four centuries, ejfisted in that island ; still, could any
one, acquainted with the facts, hesitate to believe, that the Romans had
not only visited Britain, but also remained there, as conquerors and
masters, for a great length of time. Had all historical knowledge of
the Romans been lost, would not the antiquary who examined the
relics named above, and who also extended his observations to other
countries where similar things were found, with perhaps the addition
of splendid aqueducts, and temples, and amphitheatres, all evidently
originating from one and the same people, would he not, without hesi
tation, pronounce them to have been highly civilized, warlike and
powerful ; and would he hesitate to assign to them a considerably
high antiquity.
At this moment, the barrows or sepulchral mounds, some of them
of stupendous size, which are so frequent in some parts of England,
and in various parts of Europe and Asia, besides similar structures in
North America, with the stupendous forts, which, in Ohio and Ken
tucky, and other western states, amaze and confound the observer ;

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH BACRED HISTORY. 7
these things enable us to realize the supposition just made respecting
the Romans, and oblige us to say, that all these structures were the
work of unknown races of men, on whose history even tradition
sheds not a ray of light.
It is easy to make the case still stronger. When, in 1738, the
workmen, in e.xcavating a well, struck upon the theatre of Hercula-
neum, which had reposed, for seventeen centuries, beneath the lava
of Vesuvius ; when, subsequently, (1750,) Pompeii was disencum
bered of its volcanic ashes and cinders, and thus two cities were
brought to light; had history been quite silent respecting their ex
istence, as it was respecting their destruction ;* would not all obser
vers say, and have not all actually said, — here are the works of
man, his temples, his forums, his amphitheatres, his tombs, his shops
of traffic and of arts, his houses, furniture, pictures, and personal or
naments, his streets, with their pavements and wheel-marks, worn in
the solid stone, his coins, his grinding mills, his very wine and food,
his dungeons, with skeletons of the prisoners chained in their awful
solitudes, and here and there a victim, who, although at liberty, was
overtaken by the fiery storm.
Because the soil had formed, and grass and trees had grown, and suc
cessive generations of men had unconsciously walked, toiled, or built
their houses, over the entombed cities; arid because they were cover
ed by lava or cinders, does any one hesitate to admit, that they were
once real cities, that they stood upon what was then the upper sur
face, that their streets once rang with the noise of business, and their
halls and theatres with the voice of pleasure; and that, in an evil hour,
they were overwhelmed by the eruptions of Vesuvius, and their name
and place blotted out from the earth and forgotten.
All this is legibly read by every observer, and all agree in the con
clusions to te drawn. When moreover, the traveller of the present
day sees the cracks in the walls of the houses of Pompeii, and ob
serves that some of them have been thrown out of the perpendicular
and have been pointed, and plastered, and shored up with props, he
learns, that the fatal convulsion was not the first, and that the doom
ed towns, must have been before shaken on their foundations, by the
throes of the laboring earth.
To establish all this, it is of no decisive importance that scholars
have gleaned,'here and there, a fragment from ancient Roman classics,

* In the histories of those times, it is only said, in general terms, that cities and
villages were overwhelmed.

8 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
to shew that such cities once existed ; and that they were probably
overthrown by the eruption of the year 79 of the Christian era,
which gave occasion for the interesting letter of the younger Pliny,
describing the death of his uncle, while observing the volcanic storm
which proved fatal to him. In such cases, the coincidences of his
torical and other writings and the gleanings of tradition are indeed
valuable and gratifying, and are of great utility in fixing not only
the order, but the time of the events ; but, the nature of the catas
trophe, which buried the devoted cities, is perfectly intelligible from
the appearances themselves, and needs no historical confirmation.
No man ever imagined that Herculaneum and Pompeii, were created
where we now find their ruins ; no one hazards the conjecture that
they are a lusus naturae, but all unite in giving an explanation consis-
, tent, alike, with geology, history and common sense.
Application of the Evidence.
i In the same manner then, we reason respecting the physial phe-
[nomena of our planet.
It is full of crystals and crystallized rocks ; it is replete with the en
tombed remains of animals and vegetables, from entire trees to lichens,
fuci and ferns — from coal beds to mere impressions of plants ; it is
stored with animals from the minutest shell fish to gigantic reptiles ;
it is chequered with fragments, from fine sand to enormous blocks of
stone ; it exhibits in the materials of its solid strata, every degree of
attrition, from the slightest abrasion of a sharp edge or angle, to the
perfect rounding which produces globes and spheroidal forms of ex
quisite finish: it abounds with dislocations and fractures; with in
jections and fillings up of fissures with foreign rocky matter ; with
elevations and depressions of strata, in every position, from horizon
tal to vertical ; it is covered with the wreck and ruins of its upper
surface ; and finally, its ancient fires, sometimes for variable periods,
dormant and relenting, have never been extinguished, but still strug
gle for an exit, through its two hundred volcanic mouths. The pres
ent crust is only the result of the conflicting energies of physical for
ces, governed by fixed laws ; its changes began, from the dawn of the
creation, and they will not cease till its materials and its physical laws
are annihilated. Instances.
They are innumerable, and are every where at hand ; every sys
tem of geology unfolds them; our author's preceding volume is rich in

CONSISTENCY or GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 9
such facts and it remains only to illustrate our position by a few ex
amples, in general, not novel, but duly connected, to sustain the
argument. Fossil Fish of Mount Bolca.
The beautiful fossil fish* more than 100 species of which are found
in marly limestone, in Mount Bolca, near Verona in Italy, inform us
that they were once living and active beings ; just before those hills
were deposited, and when the Waters stood over the place where the
fish were entombed, in the bottom of the sea, the rock which con
tains their skeletons was formed around them, doubtless in the state
of a calcareous sediment ; this calcareous stratum was then over
whelmed by a submarine eruption of molten rock, and the heat was
not communicated through the bad conducting substance of the marl
to the destruction of the organic forms ; then again, and still on the
bottom of the sea, the calcareous rock was formed anew with its
enclosed fish ; again the molten rock flowed over the calcareous marl
and so on in several successions. But this is not all ; this remark
able formation is now several miles from the Adriatic, the nearest
sea, and it rises 1200 feet above it. It is plain then, not only that the
whole was successively formed beneath the ocean, but that the hill,
with the country to which it belongs, was raised afterwards by sub
terranean power, and that the surrounding waters have also retired
and have, ages since, left only dry land.
Organic Remains in Early Rocks.
In very early, and often deeply seated rocks, coming immediately
after the primitive and usually called the transition, we find the first
traces of organized beings ; the perfect impresses of plants, with the
earliest coal, and both the impresses and the entire mineralized bodies
of millions of animals ; the deposition of these rocks was therefore
cotemporary with or subsequent to, the creation and propagation of
the organized beings whose impresses, or whose forms they contain,
and it is selfevident, that these rocks could not have been deposited
prior to the date of the animals and vegetables included in them.
Both the plants and animals lived and died at or near the places
where they are found entombed in the rocks ; for in most instances,
they present few or no marks of violence, or of accident ; their del-

* Of which there are splendid specimens in the cabinet of Yale College.

10 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
icate parts are, often, perfectly preserved ; animals, with all their
organs entire, and plants with their fibres and leaves in full expansion.
Occasionally, however, we find one stratum with its included
mineralized organic bodies entire, and a contiguous one having them
more or less broken, mutilated and dispersed.
Both the plants and animals, belong generally to races which are
no longer found alive, or if analogous races exist, they are related
to the ancient ones, rather by generic than by specific characters.
These ancient animals, are commonly either zoophytes or, shell fish ;
always having a simple structure, and in many instances, they are
destitute, or nearly so, of the power of locomotion ; sometimes, how
ever, they are furnished with organs for that purpose. Madrepores
and encrinites, could move very little ; the echinus, found abundant
ly in the chalk, a very recent rock of the secondary class, moved
on his spine, which served him for a foot, and some of the early
shell fish, had organs to enable them to rise aud fall in the wa
ter. Sometimes, rocks rich in entombed animals, occupy great dis
tricts of country. In the transition marble for instance, animals repo
sing in the bowels of mountains, miles from day light, often form al
most the entire mass, and they are so firmly united to the rock, as to
constitute a part of its substance. Many of the architectural marbles
owe much of their beauty to imbedded animals, myriads of which lie
almost in absolute contact ; the matter of the rock between them, only
filling up the void occasioned by their angular and confused positions.
The trilobite is one of the early fossilized and imbedded animals;
this animal, having in his back, a jointed articulation, could bend his
body like a lobster, and we find him sometimes doubled, and some
times expanded, as he lies in the rocks.*
Possilile Mode of Consolidation,
There is little difficulty in understanding how the marine animals,
for example, the crinoidea that fill, more or less, the transition lime
stone of the Peak of Derbyshire, came to be thus entombed. We cannot

* Grand trilobites, of singular size and perfection, were shown me by the late
Mr. John Sherman, at Trenton Falls, near Utica, (New York,) where Ihey were
obtained, Dr. Eights, of Albany, in a voyage to New South Shetland, found the
trilobite, still a living animal. Prof Green, of Philadelphia, has illustrated this
inleresting family by a valuable monograph and admirable models, moulded and
colored, in exact fac simile, with the originals.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH BACRED HISTORY. 11
doubt that the animals received their existence, and lived and died
in the ocean, and that, at least at the time of their death it was full
of calcareous carbonate either in solution or in mechanical sus
pension, or both.* When they died, they of course subsided to the
bottom, and were surrounded, as they lay, by the concreting calcare
ous matter. Multitudes of them were present, at the same time and
place, in all the confusion of accidental position, and therefore were
enveloped, just as we find them, in every imaginable posture ; the in
terstices were filled by the calcareous deposit, and this being more or
less chemically dissolved, produced a firm sub-crystalline mass, a sec
tion of which shews us the animals sawn through, and admitting of a
polish, like the rest of the rock.
If we could suppose that our common clams and oysters, that lie
in the mud of our harbors and inlets, were to become solidified into
one mass, along with the matter which envelopes them, the case would
not be dissimilar ; only they would be enveloped in earthy, instead of
crystalline matter, and the rock formed from it would be referred to
the most recent secondary, or to the tertiary, unless its texture were
afterwards altered by igneous or other agencies.
It is easily understood, also, how a new stratum, either of the same
or of different constitution, may be deposited upon a previous one ;
and with it, the bodies of the animals that lived and died in the fluid ;
and these might be the same animals with those of a previous stratum,
or of a different species or genus, it being understood that, in the case
of marine animals, each successive stratum was, in its turn, the bot
tom of the then ocean, and also the upper or last consolidated layer
of the crust of the earth, as it then was at that place.f
As we have no direct historical evidence to the facts, it is impossi
ble to say, precisely, what circumstances would determine the waters
to deposit, different things at different times, for instance at one peri
od, a stratum of limestone, with madrepores and encrinites, and at
another, one of breccia or sandstone, with bivalve or univalve shells.
With respect to marine and aquatic animals, the waters appear to
have been, at different periods, adapted to the support of different ra
ces, and thus their remains became successively solidified ; not imply-

» The eruption of a vast calcareous sediment, by submarine igneous agency,
which some have supposed in the case of chalk, is hardly admissible here, as the
transition limestones does not corresponds with the usual appearance of mechan
ical deposits.
t A similar course of reasoning, will apply to fresh water deposits-

12 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
ing, however, the entire extinction of all the animals of a particular
race; a multitude were entombed, as is proved by their remains, but
the species often survived ; in the mean time, new races were created
and petrified in the forming rocks : again perhaps, the diminished
race peopled the waters anew, and their relics were solidified in a new
deposition, and so on in succession.
Whether animals and vegetables were deposited in the ocean, or in
seas, in lakes, rivers or estuaries, it is easy to imagine, that if all the
causes necessary to produce the events, were in successive operation,
they might follow each other in the order supposed ; and that this
was the fact, cannot be reasonably doubted, any more than that an
edifi^Cj having granite for its foundation, and sandstone for its base
ment, and marble for its superstructure, and wood for its roof, and
lead, zinc or iron for its covering was actually constructed of these
materials, by the architect and connected in that order by his intelli
gent design.
The great truths of geology are few, simple and intelligible ; need
ing nothing but the application of a sound judgment, enlightened by
science, to the accurate observation of facts, which can often be dis
tinctly observed, and the order of their succession ascertained, wheth
er the proximate causes and the immediate circumstances can be dis
covered or not.
It is a supposition, altogether inadmissible, and unworthy of a se
rious answer, that the animal and vegetable races, entombed in such
profusion, and buried often under entire mountain ranges, or firmly
cemented into their very bosom, were created as we find them. On
the contrary, there can be no doubt whatever, that they were once
living beings, performing the part belonging to their respective races,
and that at their death, or soon after, they were consolidated, in the
then concreting and forming rocky strata, or that they were, in vari
ous instances, overwhelmed by igneous or diluvial catastrophes.
Animal Remains in Secondary and other Rocks.
The older secondary rocks often abound in shells of molluscous
animals, principally of extinct genera, and there is a progression
through the more recent strata, exhibiting a greater and greater ap
proximation towards the more complicated structure of the most per
fect animals; while the newer rocks of this class, and of the strata
that lie upon them, including the tertiary, contain reptiles, fish, and
even birds, and terrestrial quadrupeds.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 13
Saurians or Lizards.
Within a few years, the skeletons or disjointed bones of some very
large oviparous animals of the Saurian family, namely, ancient croco
diles, the ichthyosaurus or fish lizard, the megalosaurus or great liz
ard, and the plesiosaurus, have been found in the recent secondary
rocks, especially of England and France, and some of them in the
tertiary. The Megalosaurus is found in limestones and sandstones lying
higher than the lias, and the ichthyosaurus and plesiosaurus are found
also in many of the strata above, and in some of those below that rock.
The fossil crocodile appears to have been, anciently, an inhabitant
of fresh water, and of rivers, as at present. In the West Indies, ac
cording to De La Beche, the crocodiles frequent muddy, and sometimes
brackish ponds ; and in shallows, they often remain for hours, with
the tips of their noses out of water. The organization and habits of
crocodiles, do not enable them to contend with the agitations of the
sea, which they shun. It would seem, however, that the organiza
tion of the ichthyosaurus would enable him to swim in the waves.
The crocodile has been continued, perhaps, from the new red sand
stone — certainly from the lias, to the present time — and, as its remains
often occur in the interval, it appears to have been a tolerably constant
inhabitant of our globe.
With one exception, that of the opossum, found in the Stonesfield
slate, near Oxford, (Eng.) no viviparous vertebrated animal has been
found below the chalk.* The Stonesfield slate belongs to the oolitic
series, and lies below the chalk.
The remains of the Saurians, found, within a few years, in England,
France, and other countries, indicate animals of twenty, forty, fifty,
and seventy feet or more in length. They were generally amphibi
ous, and there is every reason to believe, that when only portions of
England stood out, as islands, above the water, these enormous ani
mals swam and sported about, in the inter-insular waters of primitive
Britain, or basked upon the shores of its seas and estuaries.
Mr. Mantel], of Lewes, in Sussex, England, has described another
enormous Saurian animal, the Iguanodon, (so called from his resem
blance to the Iguana of the West Indies ;) it was an herbivorous rep
tile, and appears to have attained the length of seventy feet or more
with a height of nine or ten feet. Still, his remains are interred in
* Unless it be the East Windsor animal,— Vide Am. Jour. Vol, II.

14 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY "WITH SACRED HISTORY.
solid ferruginous sandstone, far below the chalk, and probably more
than one thousand feet beneath the upper strata, that were subse
quently formed over him, many of which have been swept away by
diluvial action, or by other catastrophes.
In July, 1832, another Saurian was discovered in the sandstone of
Tilgate Forest. It is described by Mr. Mantell, in his late work on
the Geology of the South East of England, and a plate of its bones
is annexed. The reptile is named, by Mr. Mantell, the Hylasosaurus,
or Wealden Lizard. Vertebrae, ribs, coracoids, and other bones, were
found, either in connexion or in juxta-position, making an imposing
mass, and very firmly cemented into the sandstone. The animal was
gigantic, but its exact dimensions are not given ; its tail is supposed
to have been twenty five feet long.
The vegetable remains, as well as the fishes and shells, and rolled
stones, that are found entombed in the same strata, show that they
were once fhe upper surface and formed part of a vast estuary, which
was subsequently buried by the marine formation of the chalk and its
attendant strata. Organized Remains in very recent rocks.
It is easily understood, why no land quadrupeds are found in form
ations earlier than the tertiary. Until this period, there was not dry
land enough for terrestrial quadrupeds. When they were created, it
was evidently a period more advanced, than that which produced the
ancient crocodiles; more land was uncovered, but a multitude of natu
ral basins, forming lakes, were still full of water, and as the strata
which they now present, were in the course of being deposited, vari
ous quadrupeds, fortuitously conveyed into the water, or perhaps
drowned by accident or by partial inundations, became buried and
solidified, and their remains are now found in the basins of Paris and
London, and of the Isle of Wight. They are much less frequent,
than the marine animal remains of the earlier strata, probably, both
because the animals were much less numerous, and because the cir
cumstances attending their existence and death, were far less favora
ble to their inhumation and preservation.
It is worthy of remark, also, that in the very strata in which they
are contained, the relics of water-born animals are very numerous.
It is believed, by Cuvier and Brongniart, whose elaborate investiga
tion of the Paris strata, has been several years before the world, that
there were successive periods, in which marine and fresh-water shells
were, alternately and successively, produced in the waters.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 15
Trees and their members, and even entire forests are found in simi
lar situations.
In general, the bones and trees are not mineralized, but are rather,
for the most part, in the condition of grave bones or ancient wood.
The bones could not be found in the older strata, as the animals
Were evidently not in existence when those strata were deposited.
Much less could we expect to find human bones in them, for man
was not created till the earth was reduced to order, and many genera
tions of animals and plants, had lived and died ; depositing their re
mains in the rocks, whose formation was contemporaneous or immedi
ately subsequent, or whose materials were accumulated, by catastro
phes that also overwhelmed the organized beings.
The relics of plants, (the coal formations excepted,) are far less
numerous than those of animals. It is in no way surprising that their
creation should have been successive, and associated with diflferent
rock formations, and when the same plants occur in repetitions of the
same or of different formations, their seeds or roots might have been
preserved, and transported from other places, by the waters or other
causes. That state of things which attended a particular rocky deposition,
may have been such, when the same kind of rock came to be depos
ited again, as to favor the production of the same animal or vegetable
races from the germs, seeds, roots or individuals that had been pre
served. In the same latitudes, there is now, on the earth, a great regularity
in the vegetable species, and in a less rigorous degree, in the animal
races. There is every reason to believe, that the creation of animals and
plants was successive ; not by equivocal generation — not by atomic
action, but by the fiat of the Almighty.
Early animals — wood—trees — coal.
Among the primitive rocks there are no traces of vegetation, any
more than of animal life. But we repeat in this connexion, that we
no sooner reach the transition rocks, than both animals and plants
begin to appear ; the animals, however, are marine, and are vastly
more numerous than the plants. There is no reason to believe that
plants appeared until there were shores, and even marine plants must
have, in general, points of attachment in shallow waters.
3

16 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACEED HISTORY.
According to Mr. De La Beche, wood and terrestrial plants are
found in most rocks, from the old red sandstone upwards, and, in fact,
in the order of rocks immediately beneath, i. e. the transition ; prov
ing that dry land must have existed, more or less, previous to, or at
the time of the formation of most of these rocks. We may suppose,
therefore, that ponds, lakes and rivers, existed also.
Arborescent plants, and their branches and roots, are often found
in the coal formations, and in their sandstones, &c. which proves that
the gigantic vegetables were sometimes embraced in those depositions.
It would appear, from the relics of the periods immediately suc
ceeding the transition rocks, that vegetation had increased prodigious
ly upon the earth, and that there were even trees and forests upon
those parts of the surface that had become sufficiently dry.
Bituminous coal, belonging to the era of the earlier secondary,
or, as now agreed, to the transition, seems to have been formed, as
there is great reason to believe, from submerged and inhumed vege
tables, chiefly of cryptogamous plants, whose vestiges are so numer
ous in the coal mines.
Coal, being peculiarly limited in its relations, and often contained
in basins, it seems probable, that it generally arose from local circum
stances, with all its alternating and attendant strata of shales, sand
stones, limestones, clays, iron ores, pudding-stones, &c. ; and, as these
depositions are often repeated several times, in the same coal basin,
and the mines are occasionally worked to a great depth, (even to
twelve hundred feet, in some places in England,) it is plain that no
sudden and transient event, like a deluge, could have produced such
deposits, although it might bury wood and trees, which, in the course
of time, might approximate to the condition of hgnite or bituminized,
or partially mineralized wood, which is often found under circumstan
ces indicating a diluvial origin.*
Early existence of trees.
It has been supposed, that the plants which have contributed to the
formation of coal were generally succulent, with little or no firm woody
fibre. It appears, however, from two memoirs by H. Witham, Esq.
of Edinburgh, that large trees, strongly resembling the Norway fir
and the yew tree, existed, even anterior to the deposition of the great
bituminous coal-field of the Lothian s, around Edinburgh. Near that
city, in 1826, a fossil tree was discovered, three feet in diameter at its
* See Am. Jour. Vol. XXV, p, 104.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 17
Isase and thirty six feet long, lying nearly horizontally between the
strata of sandstone. Its composition was carbonate of lime 60, oxide
of iron 18, carbon 9, alumine 10.
Another fossil tree has been recently discovered in the quarry of
Craigleith, near Edinburgh, whose geological position is in the moun
tain limestone, and considerably below the great coal basin of the Lo-
thians. Its elevation is seventy five feet above the level of the sea,
and its roofs were in the bottom of the quarry. The length of the
stem was forty seven feet — a large branchless trunk — in some parts
much flattened, so as to aflbrd an elliptical section. At the largest
place, its diameter was five feet by two, and at the smallest, nineteen
inches by sixteen. Its branches, and m.any feet of its top, are gone ;
it was probably sixty feet long, and the incumbent mass of sandstone
appears to have been one hundred feet thick ; the bark is converted
into coal. The composition of this tree is, carbonate of lime 62,
carbonate of iron 33, carbon 5, with the sp. gr. 2.87. It was a conifera.
In the great coal-field of the North, in Britain, fossil plants are usu
ally found lying parallel to the strata, but much broken and compres-s-
ed, and their parts scattered ; but some vigorous plants, generally Si-
gillaricE, appear to have been so strong as to resist the torrents and
to remain in their natural position.
It results from Mr. Witham's discoveries, that plants with their or
gans of fructification apparent, (gymnospermous phanerogamic,) are
much more frequent in the coal formations than has been imagined,
and that proper trees, of true ligneous fibre and of great size, existed
even earlier than the bituminous coal.*
More recent fossil trees and plants.
Among the more recent secondary rocks, vegetables increase in
quantity and variety, as we approach the tertiary, in which we find in
humed wood in the form of lignite, or bituminized wood, or wood
slightly mineralized ; eventually we find wood unchanged ; and thus
we trace the vegetable families, from their commencement on the
borders of the primitive, quite down to our own times. In the loose
sand, gravel, and detritus, we often find trees, |,t every depth, be
tween the surface of the ground and the fixed rocks below ; the sur
face is often covered by bowlders of travelled stones, and the deposi
tion is evidently diluvial.

* Am, Jour. Vol, XXV, p. 109.

18 CONSISTENCY OP GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
Organized Remains deposited from Water, but not from a Tran
sient Deluge,
It is scarcely possible to doubt, that the process of animal and veg
etable deposition in a mineralized state described above, was that
which really happened. Whatever may have been the operations of
fire, at preceding or subsequent periods, it is impossible that it should
have been concerned in the first formation of the mineral strata,
which contain numerous organized remains. Animal or vegetable
life could never be produced or sustained in the midst of fire ; and in
deed, it is quite incredible, that strata, containing distinct organized
remains, were ever melted ; nor is it easy to imagine, that they could
be even softened, in any great degree, without destroying or material
ly deranging the organized structure.*
It appears evident also that the mineralized plants and animals
of the solid strata have not been collected in these situations, by any
eudden and local, or even general catastrophe, for as an author re
marks,- " among the immense number of fossil shells, many are re
markable for their extreme thinness, delicacy and minuteness, of parts,
none of which have been injured, but on the contrary are most perfectly
preserved." ' Among the plants of the coal formation situated some
times hundreds and thousands of feet below the surface, and covered by
many beds of solid rocks, their leaves, many of which are of the most
tender and delicate structure, are often found fully expanded, in
their natural position, in regard to the rest of the plant, and laid out,
with as much precision as in the hortus siccus of a botanist. It is
often true that the minutest parts do not appear to have sufiered attri
tion or injury of any kind. Fragmentary Rocks.
The rocks composed of fragments and rounded water worn pebbles
aflTord us the strongest evidence of progressive destruction, deposi
tion and consolidation.
Among the transition rocks, we find (in general) for the first time,
fragments both rounded and angular of all the previous rocks ; some-
* October 21, 1833. — A day or two since, I observed a common hard baked
brick, lying in the pavement of a street in this town,' (New Haven, Conn.) bear
ing a distinct and beautiful impression of a scallop shell (pecten); the shell was
gone, being doubtless destroyed by the fire, while its impress remained. Strata
that have been ignited may therefore retain the forms of organic bodies, which
would of course be destroyed by the heat.

DONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 19
times, these fragments are united by crystalline matter of a different
nature, forming the paste or cement, which holds them together ; at
other times, the paste is composed of nearly or quite the same mate
rials with the fragments, but in a state of much finer division, and at
other times there is little intOrposed cement.
But many of the rocks of this class are most palpably fragmentary,
and the fragments are of all sizes, from those that are scarcely visible
to the naked eye, to those whose dimensions are measured by in
ches and even by feet. Instances,
The brecciated marble of the Potomac, employed in the public buil
dings at Washington, is a remarkably firm rock, composed of angu
lar and ovoidal pebbles, the latter of which have evidently, received
their shape from friction in water. The cement is a more minutely
divided substance of the same kind, but calcareous matter is not ex
clusively the material either of the pebbles or of the cement.
The fragmentary rocks of Rhode Island, extending by Providence
to Boston, and which are very conspicuous in Dorchester, Roxbury,
Brooklyn, and other neighboring towns, are fine examples of early
formations of this kind. They are very interesting five miles east of
Newport, at a place called Purgatory, where a large mass of the rock
separated by the natural seams which are found in it, running parallel
for a great distance, and cutting the pebbles in two, has fallen out,
having been undermined by the sea, whose waves, when impelled by
storms, break and roar frightfully in this deep chasm.
The pebbles are here chiefly quartz — they are ovoidal in form and
of every size from that of a birds egg to that of a common keg, and
they lie generally with their transverse diameters parallel.
The pebbles of the fragmentary rocks about Boston are very va
rious in their composition, obviously however the ruins chiefly of
primitive rocks. The pebbles, which there lie in the roads and fields
have proceeded from the disintegration of this pudding stone.
The great sandstone deposit of the valley of the Connecticut pre
sents every variety in the size and form of the parts that have been
broken up from previous rocks, — transported — more or less rolled,
and cemented into rock again.
In East Haven, near New Haven, the rocks often contain massy
pebbles of granite, gneiss — mica slate and clay slate, and of the indi
vidual minerals of which they are composed. Water worn-pebbles
are in some places as common in these rocks as on the sea shore :

20 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH BACRED HISTORY.
they form mighty strata, which have been tilted out of the horizontal
position, into an inclination of 15 or 20 degrees from the horizon.
The Cattskills, are conspicuous monuments of geological revolu
tions. Not only at the base, but at the summit, from two to four
thousand feet above the level of the Hudson river, we find these
mountains composed extensively of fragmentary rocks, rounded and
angular, and their rude piles inform us, that the materials of which
they are built were once loose and rolling about, in the waves of an
early ocean, encountering friction and violence in their various modes
of action, and we see not how to avoid the conclusion that these moun
tains, after consolidation, have been raised from the depths of the sea.
Origin,
If we enquire whence arose the mighty masses of ruins of every
shape and variety, composing not merely accidental fragments, or
here or there a stratum or a hill, but covering myriads of square
miles, which are sometimes the basis of countries, and rise occasion
ally even into high mountains, we must look for an adequate cause.
Such are the eflfects and proofs of crystallization, as exhibited in
the early primitive rocks, that the contrast afforded by the fragmentary
rocks, must appear very striking ; and connected with their relative
position, can leave no doubt on the mind, that they arose from a sub
sequent and totally different state of things.
What were the causes that broke up portions of the primitive rocks
and left their ruins the sport of the waves, destined in the progress of
time, to be cemented again into firm masses ?
Besides the wearing effects of the weather and the seasons, powers
still constantly in action, and of the vicissitudes of temperature, we
can add the convulsions of earthquake, tempest, flood and fire, by
which our planet is still occasionally agitated. Beyond these, facts do
not enable us to go, but the causes that have been named would in the
course of ages, perform the work, great as the results may now ap
pear. The breaking up of primitive and other rocks by violent convul
sions, and the transportation of their ruins, often to distant places :
the frequently rounded form of the fragments, presenting pebbles of
every size, from that of a pea, to that of a hen's egg, — a human head,
or a barrel, — quartz being not unfrequently the material ; the recon-
solidation of these masses into firm rocks, — their stratification at first
horizontal and then rising, at various angles of inclination ; the alter
nation of such strata with slate and coal and other deposits, their ex-

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH BACRED HISTORY. 21
traneous contents of innumerable organized beings, and the elevation
of the whoM, sometimes hundreds or thousands of feet above the
ocean level ; all these facts leave not a doubt that the fragmentary
rocks, required much time for their formation, consolidation and ele
vation, and could never have been the work of a short period, or of
a transient deluge. Diluvial Deposits.
As regards the wreck and ruin, with which the surface of our planet
is every where covered; their extraordinary position, and, to some
extent, their production, are justly and generally attributed to diluvial
agency ; to mighty floods and rushing torrents of water.
The effects of a deluge are not forming, but destroying ; they are
chiefly mechanical, and very little if at all chemical. There is not the
least reason to believe, that any solid rock was produced by the gene
ral deluge, nor that any firmly imbedded and petrified organized re
mains belong to such a catastrophe ; to the action of waters, agitated
by a mighty moving force ; turbid in the extreme, and filled with mo
ving rocks, stones, gravel, and coarse and fine sediment — and with
extirpated and floating vegetables, and drowned animals.
Diluvium is found every where. The almost universal deposits of
rolled pebbles, and bowlders of rock, not only on the margin of the
oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers ; but their existence, often in enormous
quantities, in situations quite removed from large waters ; inland, —
imbedded in high banks, or scattered, occasionally, in profusion, on
the face of almost every region, and sometimes on the tops and de
clivities of mountains, as well as in the valleys between them ; their
entire difference, in many cases, from the rocks in the country where
they lie — rounded masses, and pebbles of primitive rocks, being de
posited in secondary and tertiary regions, and vice versa ; these, and
a multitude of similar facts, are among the most interesting of geolog
ical occurrences. Curvilinear stones may, possibly, in given instan
ces, be formed, by decomposition of the angular portions — by various
chemical agencies, aiding those of a mechanical nature ; but pebbles,
present unquestionable evidence of having been brought to their
rounded form by friction, and they can scarcely be confounded with
those produced in any other way.
The attrition of the common waters of the earth, and even that ex
erted during the short period, of the prevalence of the deluge descri
bed in Genesis, would do very little towards producing so mighty a
result ; and we must assign this operation to an earlier and much

22 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH BACRED HISTORY.
more extended course of mechanical agencies, produced by long agi
tated waters.
We must charge to moving waters the undulating appearance of
stratified sand and gravel, often observed in many places, and very
conspicuously in the plain of New Haven, and in other regions of Con
necticut and New England ; exhibiting frequently, a delicacy of flex
ion, in the layers of gravel and sand, which makes them appear as if
they had, but a moment before, received their impulse and position
from undulating water, and as if they had copied the very eddies and
gyrations of the wave.*
Bowlder stones, consisting of fragments of primitive rocks, proba
bly from the regions north of the great lakes, are found abundantly
on the secondary regions of Ohio, New York and other states ; the
fragments of the primitive Alps, on the Jura chain, (the lake of Geneva
intervening;) the ruins of the Scandinavian mountains on the seconda
ry and diluvial plains of Prussia and Northern Germany, (the Baltic
being between,) and the fragments of the northern counties of Eng
land, cover the southern and middle regions.
In many cases, bowlders and pebbles can be traced to their native
beds, and frequently they are strangers to the regions where they are
found. Deserts of sand, covering tracts more or less extensive, such as
those in South Africa, and in the Zahara, stretching in a vast belt,
from the Atlantic ocean to the desert of Lybia ; the sandy plains of
Arabia, Germany, and Russia ; the great desert at the foot of the
Rocky mountains, and all similar deposits, in situations where no ex
isting causes could leave them, are, with great propriety, referred to
diluvial agency. Diluvial torrents — lakes — valleys.
That diluvial torrents had sufficient power to roll even bowlder
stones and disjointed columnsf to great distances, or to precipitate
them into the valleys, is sufficiently evident, from what we know of
the energy of torrents in our own time.
Beds of sand, gravel, clay, loam, pebbles, and bowlders, are found,
as already stated, to compose the loose materials of every country,

* These strata would probably now be arranged with the tertiary.
t Such as the columns of trap, sometimes of enormous size, which are found
scattered, up and down, through the great Connecticut valley, often at a great dis
tance from their parent ridges. The most remarkable case in this range, is ten
miles west of Hartford, on the Albany turnpike, — See Tour to Quebec.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 23
and they invariably exhibit the appearance of deposition from water,
sometimes tranquil, sometimes more or less agitated.
Diluvial waters appear to have first transported, and theri, in a state
of comparative quietude, to have arranged these masses by sediment
ary deposition.
The effects of diluvial devastation are in a considerable degree veil
ed, by the gradual depositions of sedimentary matter, during the de
cline of the waters.
Granting that the earth has been, from any cause, covered by wa
ter, and that it has been in any way withdrawn, there must evidently
have been a multitude of local lakes, determined, by the basin shape,
so often traced by contiguous hills and high grounds ; in these, sepa
rate and independent deposits were doubtless going on, for a length
of time, perhaps even after the earth began to be peopled at the crea
tion, or repeopled after the deluge ; for this view will apply equally to
the waters which covered the earth originally, and to those that return
ed upon it by an universal deluge. Those lakes that had no perma
nent supply of water, would, of course, be exhausted by soakage and
by evaporation : others would burst their barriers, or gradually wear
them down, and during their escape, renew the diluvial ravages ;
while those only would be perennial, which were fed by streams or
springs. Many valleys of denudation, as they are called by Prof Buckland,
were probably produced by diluvial action. Such valleys are con
spicuously seen in the South of England : similar strata are found
capping contiguous hills, projecting at their sides, and running be
neath their foundations ; a curve or hollow having been scooped out
between, thus indicating the effects of great rushing torrents, attend
ed perhaps by convulsions, that more or less, broke up the superficial
strata.* It is not intended that all valleys were produced in this manner ;
many doubtless were thus formed, and many more were thus deepen
ed and modified, but a multitude of them were probably among the
original features of the planet, or produced by early convulsions.
Extraneous contents of the diluvium.
Single bones, parts of skeletons, and entire skeletons of the larger
animals, often of extinct species, but mostly of known genera, are

? See this subject ably investigated and illustrated in the ReliquiEB Diluviante,
4

24 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
found abundantly in the diluvium of all countries, where, curiosity and
intelligence exist.
Whales, sharks, and other fishes ; crocodiles, and other amphibia ;
the mammoth or the extinct elephant ; species of elephants, nearly
or quite like those of modern times ; the rhinoceros, the hippopota
mus ; hyenas, tigers, deer, horses ; various species of the bovine fam
ily, arid a multitude more, are found buried in the diluvium, at a great
er or less depth ; and in most instances, under circumstances indica
ting that they were buried by the same catastrophe which destroyed
them ; namely, a sudden and violent deluge.
It appears, from Dr. H. H. Hayden's Geological Essays; that under
the diluvium of the Atlantic portion of the middle and southern states,
there lie buried a great quantity of the bones of whales, sharks, por
poises, mammoths, Asiatic elephants, and other large animals, along
with numerous trees, sometimes with their fruit. Layers of marine
mud are also found, deep beneath the diluvium, below the present
low water mark.
There are also vast quantities Of shells, and especially of a gigantic
oyster, in many parts of the southern states. They are found, not
only in digging for wells, but they form vast beds in various places.
Near Tours, in France, is a bed of oyster shells twenty seven miles
long and twenty feet thick.
But the beds of the southern states far exceed this. A stratum, on
the whole continuous, although mixed, more or less, with the general
diluvium, and other materials of the country, has been traced from
the Eutaw springs, ih South Carolina, to the Chickasaw country; six
hundred miles in length, by ten, or from that to one hundred, in
breadth.* There can be little doubt that many of the beds of oyster shells,
which have been attributed to the aboriginal Indians of this country
are diluvial deposits.
The bones and skeletons of large animals, especially of the mam
moth, are found in wide dispersion, and in very remote countries ; in
both Americas, in Europe aud in Asia. In northern Asia, the tusks
of the extinct elephant, are discovered in the diluvial banks of almost
every river, and the ivory is found in such abundance, as to be a regu
lar article of commerce. An enormous carcase of the northern or
Asiatic elephant, a few years since, by the gradual thawing of the
frozen bank, in which it was imbedded, high above the water, fell
down and exhibited the flesh in full preservation ; the long bristly

+ JJr, Finch.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 25
liair and vast massy hide, requiring a large number of men to carry
it, aflbrded proof irrefragable, of the existence of the animal in those
rigorous climates, and of his sudden extinction, inhumation and con
gelation, with so little interval of tirae, that putrefaction had not com
menced, and has not since taken place, during a long succession of
ages. Indeed, there is but one view wliich appears to carry with it the
least probability, as to the cause of the wide dispersion and sepulture
of tlie gigantic races; especially ol^ extinct animals in the various
(fiiarters of the world. It seems evidently to have been the work of
a delu^'e, which at once drowned, and in many instances extinguish
ed, whole races of animals, and buried their bodies in the wreck of
the planet with which those waters were evidently filled. Such a
scene of awful devastation, was as well fitted to produce these effects,
as it was ill adapted, to the comparatively tranquil life and death of
the successive generations of marine and aqueous animals, that peo
pled the earlier oceans.
As organized remains are found at very high levels, not only miner
alized, but loose or in diluvium, the prevalence of the ocean, at differ
ent periods and under very different circumstances, is thus proved.
It is said that the skeleton of a whale lies on the top of the moun
tain Sandhorn, on the coast of the northern sea. The mountain is
three thousand feet high, and there is no cause that could have convey
ed the whale to that elevation, except a deluge rising to that height.
So late as June, 1824, the remains of a whale were found on the
Westernmost Stappen, a mountain in Finmarck, at an elevation of
eight, hundreS feet above the ocean. The specimens, which were re
ported to be vertebrse, were lost by shipwreck on their passage to
England. Similar remains are said to exist also in North Fugeloe,
another mountain in those regions. — Penn.
It is common to find trees and their members, not only in the dilu
vium, but also in the knovvn alluvium of rivers, &c. In general, they
are not much altered ; sometimes they are partially bituminized or
verge towards lignite, or perhaps are really lignite ; at other times,
they are penetrated by acids and saline substances, and metallic min
erals, as pyrites, are occasionally formed upon or in them.
As there is no diflference in the nature of the operations by which
diluvium and alluvium are produced, we must resort to an induction
of particulars, in order to enable us to distinguish between them ; but
in most situations, especially those that are remote from rivers and
moving waters, there is very little occasion for hesitation, in forming
an opinion.

26 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
Beautiful Arrangement of Loose Materials,
Nothing in geology strikes the observer, with more interest, than
the beautiful arrangement, in strata, of the beds of sand, gravel, clay,
loam and pebbles, which may be observed in every conntry.* A sec
tion of a bank of any of these deposits — or better still, an avulsion
or fall, which leaves the stratification exposed, without being obscured
by the rubbish, produced by digging, or by the sliding of loose sand
— never fails to exhibit the effects of sedimentary deposit ; sometimes
horizontal — sometimes inclined at various angles, great or small —
sometimes undulatory, and recording, in a language that cannot be
misunderstood, the effects of subsiding water. The beds are not al
ways in the order of the magnitude of the parts. Sometimes coarser
gravel, or even pebbles, will form a layer, above fine sand, and then
perhaps the order will be reversed, indicating that there were currents ;
and these, relenting and increasing, alternately, as they were impelled
probably by tides or storms, so that coarser or finer materials were
transported and deposited, as the waters were more or less agitated ;
for currents must have existed to the last. Could these sedimentary
deposits be now all removed, we should see the naked, scarred and
devasted skeleton of the planet, exhibiting the most decisive proof
that it had been swept by violence, of which we find evident marks in
the scratches and furrows, found in the fixed rocks, that are covered
by diluvium.
If a section of the deepest diluvium could be made .quite down to
the solid rock, there can be little doubt, that, on the whole the mag
nitude of the parts would correspond with the depth, and the larger
frao-ments of these materials would often be found at the bottom.
This does not render it improbable, that bowlder stones should be oc
casionally deposited on the surface, especially when they are found on
the firmer materials, or on rocky ledges.
Contrast hetween Diluvial, and Tranquil Aqueous Ageney,
The agency of water, whether fresh or salt, in sustaining, deposit
ing and burying organized bodies, (except the eflTects of occasional
convulsions) was, evidently, tranquil and long continued ; giving time
for many generations of the same or of different races ; and for all
the alternations and successions of different strata with different or
ganized bodies.

* For our present purpose it is immaterial whether these depositions be referred
to tertiary deposits, or to those that are strictly diluvial.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 27
The occasional intervention of igneous irruption, whether subma
rine or subterrene, below or among the strata of aqueous origin, or
upon them, only increases the necessity of time, and when these co
incidences occur, they add to the evidence of grand geological cycles.
But diluvial agency is, usually violent, sudden, and of short dura
tion. If the universal deluge recorded in Genesis, be taken as the type of
diluvial action and the time and the elevation stated in the history be
taken into the account, nothing could be more violent, destructive,
overwhelming ; and certainly upon the face of the earth are every
where recorded, in legible characters, the necessary physical effects
of such a debacle.
It has entered but little into the views of any except geologists to
discriminate between these two classes of effects. They are as wide
apart as possible, and nothing in science is more unskilful or more
unhappy than to confound them.
The surface of our planet has been swept by violent, agitated tor
rents of water, which covered the earth every where with its own
ruins, but probably this catachlysm did not form any of the firm
strata filled with organized remains.
Miscellaneous Illustrations, from MantelVs Geology of the South
East of England.*
From this volume, the most recent in time, and not surpassed in
authority by any work on Geology, we now cite some miscellaneous
facts and conclusions, principally in the words of the respected au
thor. His labors, ably seconded and illustrated by the talent and taste of
Mrs. Mantell, have shed a most unexpected light on the geology of the
South East of England ; and with the efforts in the same region, of
Webster, Murchison, Fitton, Buckland, and other eminent men, have
amassed materials upon which are erected general conclusions of the
greatest importance. Mr. Mantell's publications on local geology en
title him to rank with Cuvier and Brongniart, whose grand work on
the environs of Paris, led the way in this species of research, which,
has since, been so ably and successfully followed in many places, and
in several countries.
Chapter XI of Mr. Mantell's late work, from which our citations
will now be made, forms the conclusion of the volume, and presents
* The preface of which is dated in April, 1833.

28 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
the " Results" of a course of detailed and exact induction, involving
extensive and precise knowledge of several collateral sciences, and
especially of conchology, botany, and comparative anatomy.
The chapter, although detached from its documents, is mainlyin-
telligible without them, and presents a fine example of the course of
induction now pursued by the most able geologists and is precisely in
point in support of our present argument. Mr. Mantell, remarks : —
Happily, the evidence of the great physical mutations, and impor
tant changes in organic life, which have taken place in this part of the
earth during the geological periods to which our researches refer, is
so clear and satisfactory, that even the general reader will perceive
that our deductions, extraordinary as they may appear, naturally re
sult from the facts themselves.
The several formations or groups of strata, previously described,
may be regarded as geological chronometers, marking certain distinct
epochs or periods ; the lowermost or most ancient of which (as we
have already noticed) is of fluviatile origin, and reposes on the Oolite,
a marine formation of great extent, that forms an important feature in
the physical structure, not only of England, but also of the Continent.
The Portland Limestone constitutes the uppermost division of the
Oolite, and contains marine remains only ; it is succeeded by the
fresh-water strata of the Isle of Purheclt, which may be considered
as the lowermost deposits of the Wealden.
But there is a fact connected with the history of the Portland and
Purbeck beds, so highly interesting, and which illustrates in so stri
king a manner the nature of one of those grand geological mutations
which have taken place in the south of England, that it will be neces
sary to notice it here, although it occurs vvithout the limits of the dis
trict, which it is the professed object of this work to describe.
In the island of Portland, the oolitic limestone is extensively quar
ried for architectural purposes, and supplies most of the cities and
towns in the south-east of England. On these oolitic strata are pla
ced deposits of a totally different character. Immediately on the up
permost marine stratum (which abounds in ammonites, terehrm, tri-
gonia, &c.) is a bed of limestone, much resembling, in appearance,
some of the tertiary lacustrine limestones. Upon this stratum is a
layer of what appears to have been an ancient vegetable soil ," it is
of a dark brown colour, contains a large proportion of earthly lig
nite, and, like the modern soil on the surface of the island, many
water-worn stones. This layer is called the dirt-bed by the quarry-
men ; and in, and upon it, are a great number of silicified trunks of
coniferous trees, and plants allied to the recent cycas and zamia.
Many of the stems of the trees, as well as the plants, are still erect, as
if petrified while growing undisturbed in their native forest ; the for
mer, having their roots in the soil, and their trunks extending into the
superincumbent strata of limestone. On a late visit to the quarries, a
large area of the surface of the dirt-bed having been cleared, prepara
tory to its removal for the purpose of extracting the building-stone
from beneath, several stems, from two to three feet in height, were

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 29
exposed, each standing erect in the centre of a mound or dome of
earth, which had evidently accumulated around the base and roots of
the trees ; presenting an appearance as if the trees had been broken,
or torn off, at a short distance from the ground. Portions of trunks
and branches were seen, some lying on the surface, and others imbed
ded in the dirt-bed ; many of these were nearly two feet in diameter,
and the united fragments of one tree measured upwards of thirty feet
in length. The silicified plants allied to the cycas are found in the in
tervals between the trees ; and I dug up from the dirt-bed several that
were standing erect, evidently upon the very spot on which they grew,
and where they had remained undisturbed amidst all the revolutions
which bad subsequently swept over the surface of the earth. ' The
dirt-bed extends through the north of the Isle of Portland, and traces
of it have been observed in the coves at the west end of Purbeck ;
and a stratum, with bituminous matter and silicified wood, occurs in
the cliffs of the Boulonnois, on the opposite coast of France, occupy
ing the same relative situation with respect to the Purbeck and Port
land formations. A similar bed has ako been discovered in Bucking
hamshire, and in the Vale of Wardour, proving that the presence- of
this remarkable stratum is coextensive with the junction of the Port
land and Purbeck strata, so far as they have hitherto been exam
ined.'* Above the dirt-hed are thin layers of limestone, the total thickness
being about eight feet, into which the erect trunks extend, but no oth
er traces of organic remains have been noticed in them. These lime
stone beds are covered by the modern vegetable soil, which scarcely
exceeds in depth the ancient one above described ; and instead of giv
ing support, like the latter, to a tropical forest, can barely maintain a
scanty vegetation, there being scarcely a tree or shrub on the whole
island. t
Here, then, we have recorded in characters which cannot be mis
taken the nature of the changes which took place in this part of the
globe, after the sea of the oolite had deposited the marine strata of
Portland. A portion of the bed of that sea was elevated above the
surface of the waters, and became clothed with a vegetation, which,
reasoning from the close resemblance of the fossil plants to the recent
Cycadem, must have enjoyed a climate of a much higher temperature
than is known in these latitudes at the present day. How long this
island, or continent, (for of its extent no correct estimate can be form
ed,) rema,ined above the level of the ocean, cannot be conjectured ;
but that it was dry land for a considerable period, is manifest from

* Vide Geology of Hastings, p. 76. el seq.
tThe appearance of the large quarry on the northern brow of the Island of
Portland was, at the time of my visit (in July, 1839), peculiarly interesting ; and
although prepared by a perusal of the excellent Memoirs of Mr, Webster, and Dr.
Buckland, (Geol. Trans, 2d series, vol. ii,) for the phenomena presented to my
view, I was struck with astonishment at the extraordinary scene; the floor of the
qliarry was literally strewed wjth fossil wood, and before me were the remains of
a petrified tropical forest, the trees' and the plants, like the inhabitants of the city
in Arabian story, being converted into stone, yet still maintaining the plaices whie-h
they occupied «'hen alive.

30 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
the number and magnitude of the petrified trees which remain. It is
equally evident, that it was submerged before the Purbeck and Weal
den strata began to be deposited ; for the dirt-bed, and its contents,
are covered by the freshwater limestone of the former. The tropical
forest of Portland must, therefore, have gradually and tranquilly sub
sided (like many subterranean forests of the modern epoch) beneath a
body of fresh water, sufficiently profound to admit of the accumulation
of the limestone and fluviatile strata that compose the Wealden.
What contemporaneous changes took place in other parts of Europe,
it would be foreign to our purpose, and perhaps, in the present state
of our knowledge, in vain to enquire ; but we may remark, that the
submergence of so extensive a tract of country, probably produced in
other regions important mutations in the relative level of the land and
water. At this epoch, then, the land and its tropical forest sank to
the depth of many hundred feet, and became the bed of a vast lake or
estuary, into which we have the clearest evidence that a river flowed,
and formed a delta, made up of the debris of the rocks which compo
sed its bed, intermixed with the remains of the animals and vegeta
bles of the country from whence its waters were derived ; for, as Mr.
Bakewell has sagaciously remarked, a river that could form a delta of
such extent as the Wealden, it must have required the drainage of a
vast continent to supply.*
The proofs of the Wealden having been the delta of some ancient
river, are so fully stated in the preceding chapter, that it is unneces
sary to dwell upon the subject. Of its original extent, our conjec
tures must necessarily be extremely vague : Dr. Fitton has, however,
ingeniously instituted a comparison between the known superficial
surface of the Wealden, and the deltas of some modern rivers. As
suming that the occurrence of the Wealden strata at Beauvais is es
tablished, this eminent geologist computes that the remains of the delta
of the Iguanodon period, are from west to east, or from Lulworth
Cove, to the boundaries of the Lower Boulonnois, about 200 miles ;
and from north-west to south-east, or from Whitchurch to Beauvais,
220 miles ; the total depth or thickness being about 2000 feet.f This
but little exceeds the modern deltas of the Ganges, and the Mississip
pi ; and is not equal to that of the Quorra, or Niger, which forms a
surface of 25,000 square miles, being equal in extent to one half of
England. We have no data from which to calculate the probable duration of
the Iguanodon epoch ; it is, however, manifest that no brief period
could have sufficed for that profuse evolution of animal life, of which
we have such positive evidence in the organic remains. It may here,
too, be remarked, that the vegetables and animals of this era, like the
forest of Portland, denote a tropical climate, and belong to species and

* Had the fossil vegetal^les of the Wealden been identical with those of the Isle
of Portland, it might have been supposed that the latter was dry land at the Iguan
odon period: but although the vegetable remains in both deposits indicate the
floras of tropical climates, they are totally distinct from each other, and belong to
different species and genera.
t Geology of Hastings, p, 58.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH BACRED HISTORY. 31
genera, wholly unknown ; and, as we have elsewhere observed, the
fossil bones of the oviparous quadrupeds are so enormous, that it is
even difficult to believe the evidence of our senses, when we attempt,
from these remains, to restore the forms of the extinct monsters of the
ancient world.
The next great change is the subsidence of the Wealden into the
abyss of that extensive and profound ocean which deposited the chalk
formation. Whether this mutation were effected suddenly, or by
slow degrees ; whether the Wealden subsided entire, or were broken
up previously to its submergence ; or whether, hke the Isle of Port
land, it constituted dry land at some remote period antecedently to its
being buried beneath the sea, we have no data to enable us to decide.
The principal lines of elevation of the Wealden are clearly referable to
those movements which up-heaved the chalk and incumbent strata :
but we may observe, that the deeper beds exhibit traces of extensive
faults and dislocations, which seem to belong to previous disruptions,
for the fissures and chasms are filled up with broken shale, and clay,
and sand, the debris of the Wealden, and contain no intermixture what
ever of the marine deposits which may be supposed to have once cov
ered them.
The ocean of the chalk appears to have been of vast extent ; it bu
ried beneath its waters a considerable part of Europe ; and, probably,
like the Atlantic, its waves reached the western world, and covered a
portion of the continent of North America,* The nature of the strata,
and the organic remains which they enclose, prove that the chalk was
deposited in the tranquil depths of a profound ocean ; the abundance
of Ammonites, Nautili, and other multilocular shells that inhabit the
bottom of the deep ; the almost entire absence of pebbles and gravel ;
the perfect state in which the fishes and other perishable organic bod
ies occur — not as in the Wealden, crushed, and disjointed, but as per
fect as if they had been enveloped by a soft paste when living, or even
while in a state of progression — all bear evidence in favour of such a
conclusion. There are but few, if any remains of terrestrial animals and plants,
to throw light on the nature of the climate during the cretaceous
epoch : we may, however, infer from the nautili and other tropical
shells, as well as from the presence of the stony polipidoms, or corals,
that the temperature was not much inferior to that of the Iguanodon
period, for this division of zoophytes is not known to exist in low lati
tudes in our modern seas.f The cretaceous strata of the chalk, with

* The occurrence of the remains of the Mososaums, that extraordinary reptile
of the Maestricht beds, in the strata of the United States, previously mentioned, is
a remarkable fact in corroboration of such an inference. See Dr. Morton on the
Ferruginous Sand Formation of North America, 8vo. 1 vol. with plates. Phila
delphia. 1833.
t M. Lamonroux observes, that in the colder latitudes the Cellarias, and Serttiy-
larim alone are to be found; with a few closely woven sponges, and a small num
ber of alcyonia. The minute Pentacrinus Europceus, recently discovered by Mr.
Thompson in the Cove of Cork, is an exception ; but the recent Pentacrinus Ca-
jSut Meduscs, to which the pentacrinal stems that occur in the chalk bear consider
able analogy, is found in the sea off the West India Islands.
6

32 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
their nodules and veins of flint, have more the character of a chemi
cal production, than of a mere mechanical deposit; and may perhaps
owe their origin to precipitation from thermal waters. The shells and
crustaceous coverings of the echini are invariably changed into calca
reous spar ; and in many instances the terehratulce are twisted and
contorted in every direction, without the shells exhibiting a single
fracture ; changes which probably resulted from the influence of a
high temperature under considerable pre.^sure.
With the exception of the pentacrinus, the teeth of fishes resem
bling those of the shark, the teeth of crocodiles, and perhaps a few
shells,* the organic remains of the chalk differ entirely from all known
existing species, as well as from the fossils of other formations. The
thickness of the chalk, which is estimated at upwards of 1200 feet,
and the immense variety and numbei-s of its organic remains, evince
that the agents which produced it were in full activity through a long
period of time.f Although we have no satisfactory evidence to deter
mine whether the chalk were deposited over the enjire surface of the
Wealden (as seems most probable,) or whether, the latter were under
going elevation during the deposition of the chalk, and were but par
tially covered by the cretaceous strata, yet there can be no doubt that
the chalk originally very much exceeded its present limits. It is true
that gravel, and partially rolled flints, occur but rarely on the Weal
den, the diluvial covering of the latter chiefly consisting of its own de
bris ; yet this fact may have resulted from the action of the sea during
the elevation of the strata, or many other causes, and cannot be admit
ted as affording conclusive evidence that the Wealden was never whol
ly covered by the chalk. Our limits will not allow us to examine this
interesting question in all its bearings, which will be fully elucidated
in the 3d volume of„Mr. Lyell's " Principles of Geology," now in the
press ; and we proceed to the consideration of the next geological
era — that in which the older tertiary strata were deposited.
The epochs we have already noticed are marked by immense muta
tions in the relative situation of the land and sea ; yet these changes
appear to have been eiiected in such a manner as to have occasioned
comparatively but little derangement in the strata, and to have been
succeeded by periods of repose of long duration. In the tertiary era,
on the contrary, it is manifest that tbe disturbing forces were in fre
quent and violent action, and produced elevations and subsidences,
and enormous dislocations and fissures, throughout the whole mass of
the strata of the south-east of England. In the anticlinal axis of the
Forest ridge, from whence the strata diverge to the south-east in Sus
sex and the north-west in Kent, we have evidence of a force having
acted from beneath, in a direction from east to west, by which the
Wealden beds have been elevated above the chalk formation, and the

* Even these few exceptions are very equivocal, and probably the species will
hereafter prove to be distinct from their supposed analogues,
t The fossils of the chalk of Sussex are enumerated in the Catalogue in the Ap
pendix to this work. In the list of the organic remains of the cretaceous strata of
Europe, given by M, De la Beche, there ar-e, of P^eptiles, 6or 8 ; Fishes, 10 or 12;
Crustacea, 1,5; Mollusca, 225; Conchifera, 285; Annulata, 110; Radiaria, 90;
Vegetable remains, 20 species, 16 of which are marine.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACEED HISTORY. 33
cretaceous strata broken up, and swept away from the whole central
area of Kent and Sussex. On these phenomena Dr. Fitton observes,
that, ' whether the fractures and up-heavings took place entirely be
neath the sea, or after the strata were in part or wholly raised above
its surface, at once or at distant epochs, we have no facts to enable us
to decide ; it is, indeed, not impossible that the very act of rending the
strata may itself have effected their protrusion from beneath the
waves.'* If, however, we consider that the chalk was upwards of
1200 feet in thickness, and extended over the whole southern denuda
tion, it seems probable that elevation and destruction were going on
simultaneously. So soon as the first ridge of chalk on the anticlinal
line protruded above the surface of the ocean, it would becorae expo
sed to the action of the waves ; and as elevation proceeded, degrada
tion would proceed also, until the whole of the chalk strata were car
ried away, and the AYealden beds in their turn became exposed to the
same destructive agency. The debris of both formations would thus
become intermixed and deposited in the hollows of the chalk, giving
rise to those accumulations of transported materials of which the ter
tiary strata are principally composed. During these important and
extensive changes, the tertiary ocean which then covered the south
east of England, must have been studded with islands, formed by the
most elevated portions of the chalk and Wealden ;t the marshes of the
then existing continent were peopled with tribes of extinct animals
allied to the Tapir (the palmotherians,) and the lacustrine formations
of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were deposited.
The organic remains of the tertiary epoch differ entirely from those
of the chalk upon which in the south-east of England they repose.
In the Isle of Wight, in the Paris Basin, and many contemporaneous
deposits on the continent, they consist of alternations of marine and
freshwater shells, indicating the existence of lakes communicating
with the sea. The ammonites, and other ancient pelagian shells, en
tirely disappear, and a small proportion of recent species occurs in
the most ancient, and a much more considerable number in the newer
deposits. With these are associated the remains of the Palajotheria,
of crocodiles, turtles, birds, and fishes ; and the stems and leaves of
palms, and other vegetables characteristic of an equatorial climate.
In the tertiary strata of the south-east of England, no traces of mam
malia have been discovered ; the organic remains consisting of shells,
the bones and teeth of fishes, and the leaves and stems of vegetables.
The next era is marked by the existence of the fossil elephant, or
mammoth, in these latitudes, having for contemporaries a species of
deer, ox, and horse ; and in other parts of England, the rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, &c. The teeth which have been found in Sussex be
long to a species nearly allied to the Asiatic elephant, and the deposits
in which they occur are decidedly of a more recent date than those

* Geology of Hastings, p. 83.
t Vide the ' Principles of Geology,' vol. ii. In the map illustrating the extent of
the tertiary sea, or seas, it will be seen that Mr. Lyell has delineated a range of
chalk islands in the south-eastern part of England, agreeably to this theory of the
gradual elevation of the land.

34 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH BACRED HISTORY.
above described, for they contain boulders of tertiary sandstone, and
breccia ; while, in the older tertiary, the remains of the elephant have
not been discovered. The perfect state of the teeth in the deposits at
Brighton, forbids the supposition that they were transported from a
distance : and we have, too, the remarkable fact, that while the shin
gle on which the elephant bed reposes, is composed not only of chalk
pebbles, but of boulders of granite, porphyry, and other primary rocks
which must have been brought from a distant part of the country, and
of tertiary sandstone and breccia, and the sand beneath contains the
bones of whales, no remains of elephants have been found therein. It
would seem, therefore, that the sand, and the shingle, were formed in
an estuary, and that when the upper beds were deposited, all commu
nication with the ocean was cut off; for neither the bones, nor the
materials of which the bed is composed, appear to have suffered from
attrition, nor is there any intermixture of marine exuvia?. These de
posits were evidently of considerable extent : there are outlying'
patches on the chalk along the coasts of Sussex and Kent, and also at
Etables, and other points on the opposite shores of France. Similar
beds occur on the banks of the Loire, and probably the same series is
represented by the Crag, overlying the London Clay, on the eastern
shores of England ; facts which tend to prove that the estuary once
extended over a considerable portion of the area now occupied by the
British Channel.* The geological relations of this group of deposits
are as yet but imperfectly known. The zoological characters which
distinguish them from the older tertiary strata, are the absence of the
palceotheria, and the occurrence of the remains of the mammoth, rhi
noceros, and other mammalia, whose bones are so constantly found in
the superficial gravel of Europe, intermixed with those of recent spe
cies. To this epoch we may probably refer the existence of hyenas, ti
gers, and other carnivorous animals, whose skeletons are entombed in
such immense numbers in caverns, and fissures, and in beds of super
ficial gravel, in various parts of England, and the continent. One sol
itary instance only is known of the occurrence of remains of this kind
in the south-east of England. The lower jaw and a few fragments of
other bones of a hyena were discovered, a few years since, in a chasm
in a stone quarry at Boughton, near Maidstone.
The liext era is that during which the Crag, and the tertiary strata,
and the chalk on which they repose, were lifted up to their present
situations ; the channel which separates England from France was
broken through, , and the transverse valleys of the North and South
Downs were produced or enlarged ; for, although these valleys are
now river courses, yet it is obvious that they originated in disruption,
for the strata, in every instance which I have observed, diverge from

* Mr, Samuel Woodward, -of Norwich, the author of the ' Synoptical Table of
British Organic P.,emains,' (a work indispensable to the practical geologist) states,
that in the crag on the coast of Norfolk, the remains of Mammotlis are so abund
ant, that on the oyster-ground off Harborongh, the grinders of these animals which
have been found must have belonged to upwards of 500 individuals.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 35
the line of fracture.* We should doubtless err in assigning all these
mutations to one and the same period; the phenomena. are extremely
complicated, and an appearance which may seem to have been pro
duced at the same time, and by a single operation, may have been the
result of many and varied changes. There is, however, one fact res
pecting which there can be no hesitation, namely, that the disturbing
forces which have broken up the tertiary deposits came into action
after the elephant epoch. These elevatory movements and convul
sions were manifestly of great intensity, and materially changed the
physical geography of the south-east of England, and the contiguous
parts of the continent, and occasioned the vertical position of the
strata in the Isle of Wight and Hampshire. These alterations in the
surface of the country, must, too, have been attended with great
changes in the hydrography of Hampshire, Surrey, Kent, and Sussex;
the waters resulting from the drainage of the land, and which, before
the existence of the transverse fractures, probably flowed through the
longitudinal valleys towards the east, would be thrown into different
channels, and find their way to the ocean by the existing river courses.
Traces of these revolutions remain in the boulders and superficial
loam and gravel, which occupy the valleys and low elevations of the
south-east of England.
Subsequently to these last mentioned changes, the surface of the
country appears to have undergone no material alteration ; the ordi
nary effects of the atmosphere, the degradation of the shores by the
action of the sea, the erosion by river currents of the strata over
which they flow, and the formation of deltas, and the silting up of
valleys, being the only physical changes that have taken place in the
south-east of England during the modern epoch, and which are still
in active operation.
The existii5g rivers in this district are producing on a small scale
the same effects as the mighty river of the Iguanodon period ; bring
ing down from the interior the debris of the strata over which they
flovir, mixed with the bones of animals, and the trunks, branches, and
leaves of vegetables, and imbedding a portion in the chalk valleys, in
a deposit of mud or silt, and transporting the remainder to form del
tas at their entrance into the ocean.
The levels near Lewes, described in a former part of this volume,
afford so interesting an illustration of the silting up of the disrupted
valleys of the chalki during a comparatively very recent period, that
we subjoin the following summary of the sequence of events which
they record.! First, there was a salt-water estuary peopled for many
years by marine testacea identical with existing species, and into which
some of the large cetacea, as the sea-unicorn and porpoise, occasion
ally entered. Secondly, the inlet grew more shallow, and the water

* Mr. Woodward arrives at the same conclusion from an examination of the
chalk valleys of Norfolk. " These," he observes, " are valleys of disruption ;
that is, they were formed by the elevation of the chalk and its consequent frac
ture, as is evident from the strata of chalk and flints on each side of the valley
being now found to decline from the line of elevation." — Correspondence with the
Author. t Principles of Geology, vol. ii. p. 276,

36 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
became brackish, or alternately salt and fresh, so that fresh-water and
marine shells were mingled in the blue argillaceous sediment at the
bottom. Thirdly, the shoaling continued until the river water pre
vailed, and was no longer habitable by marine testacea, but fitted only
for the abode of fluviatile species and aquatic insects. Fourthly, a
peaty swamp or morass was formed, into which trees and terrestrial
animals, as deer, were occasionally drifted by land floods. Lastly,
the soil, being only subject to periodical inundations from the river,
became a verdant plain, through which the narrow Ouse now winds
its way to the British Channel. It is in alluvial deposits of this kind
that the remains of man first appear: human skeletons, and the rude
instruments of a half-civilized race, are found associated with the bones
of animals which still inhabit this country, and in some instances in
termixed with the osseous remains of a few species that appear to
have been extirpated by man.
Such are the results which a review of the geological phenomena
of the south-east of England offers to our consideration. We have
evidence of great physical mutations of the surface of the earth — of
vast changes in the temperature of the climate ; and we perceive that
these revolutions were accompanied by a corresponding alteration in
the forms of organic life : these are general conclusions, which can
not be disputed, although the laws that governed these co-existing
phenomena may be concealed from our view. It is, however, obvi
ous, that the great changes which have taken place in the relative
proportion of the land and water, must have materially influenced
the temperature of the climate, and consequently the geographical
distribution of animals and vegetables. Mr. Lyell has treated this
question in a very luminous and admirable manner, and has shown
that there is every reason to conclude that since the commencement
of the tertiary period, the dry land in the northern hemisphere has
been increasing ; not only because it is now greatly in excess beyond
the average proportion which land generally bears to water on our
planet, but because a comparison of the secondary and tertiary strata
affords indications throughout the space occupied by Europe, of a
transition from the condition of an ocean, interspersed with islands,
to that of a large continent: and to this increase of the land in the
northern hemisphere we may probably attribute, in a great measure,
that gradual diminution of temperature which the organic remains of
the different periods denote. "The climate was hottest when the
northern hemisphere was for the most part occupied by the ocean ;
and the refrigeration did not become considerable until a very large
proportion of that ocean was converted into land and replaced in
some parts by high mountain chains : nor did the cold reach its maxi
mum until these chains attained their greatest elevation, and the land
its utmost extension."
The changes that have taken place in the forms of the animal and
vegetable kingdoms, are not less striking than those which we have
above described in the inorganic world. The animals and plants of
the more ancient strata, are not only such as could not now exist in
the latitudes which they formerly inhabited, but almost all the spe
cies, and very many of the genera, are no longer to be found in any
part of the knovvn globe. In the newer deposits, on the contrary.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACUED HISTORY. 37
we perceive an intermixture of existing with extinct species ; the
proportion of the former increasing according to the more recent
formation of the strata, till, in the deposits of the modern era, the
remains of existing species alone are discovered, and, as we have al
ready remarked, in these accumulations of debris, the skeletons of
man, and traces of the works of art of the early tribes of our race,
are sometimes found imbedded.
The extinction of whole genera of animals and plants has, no doubt,
depended on various causes. In the earlier revolutions, the vicissitudes
of climate, and the mutations of land and water, were, probably, the
principal agents of destruction : but since raan became the lord of the
creation, his necessities and caprice have occasioned the extirpation
of many tribes, whose relics are found in the same superficial strata
with those of species concerning which all human history and tradi
tion are silent.*
The obliteration of certain forms of animal life (and perhaps the
creation of new ones) appears, therefore, to be dependent on a law in
the economy of nature, which is still in active operation. Of this we
have a remarkable instance in the case of the Dodo, which has been
annihilated, and become a denizen of the fossil kingdom, almost be
fore our eyes. The Dodo was a bird of the gallinaceous tribe, larger
than the turkey, which existed in great numbers in the Mauritius and
adjacent islands, when those countries were first colonized by the
Dutch, about two centuries ago. This bird was the principal food of
the colonists ; but it was incapable of domestication, and its numbers
soon became sensibly diminished. Stuffed specimens were sent to
the museums of Europe, and paintings of the living animal were exe
cuted, and copied into the works on natural history. The Dodo is
now extinct: it is no longer to be found in the isles where it once
flourished, and even all the stuffed specimens are destroyed ; the only
relics that remain being the head and foot of an individual in the Ash-
molean museum at Oxford, and the leg of another in the British mu
seum. To render this history complete, the fossilized remains were
alone wanting, and these have actually been found beneath a bed of
lava in the Isle of France, and are now in the museum of the Jardin
des Plantes at Paris ; affording the most unexpected and conclusive
evidence of the truth of what was formerly considered one of the
most startling propositions in modern geology. t
Another highly interesting and important fact is proved by the phe
nomena that have been presented to our examination, namely, the
comparatively recent period at which man became an inhabitant of
the earth, and exercised dominion over the animal creation ; a fact in

* In Great Britain, we may instance, as belonging to species which formerly
existed in this country, and are still living in other parts of the globe, the beaver,
hear, wolf, hyena, tf-c; and, as wholly extinct, the Irish Elk and Mammoth, with
whose bones existing species of shells are sometimes found associated. Consult
Dr. Fleming's British Animals, 1 vol, 8vo. 1828: also an excellent Memoir, by
the same author, in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, No. xxii.
t See an excellent paper on the Dodo, by Mr. Duncan, Zoological Journal for
January, 1828: also, "Contributions towards the History of the Dodo, (Didusin-
eptus,) by J. V. Thompson, Esq,, .ir/ig. Nat. Hist., vol. ii, p, 443; and Mr. Lyell's
Principles of Geology, vol, ii, p, 151.

38 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH BACRED HISTORY.
strict accordance with those sacred records which reveal the moral
obligations and destiny of the human race.
With these observations I conclude this volume ; entreating the in
dulgence of the geologist for much prolixity on subjects with which
he was already familiar, but which without such detail would have
presented but little interest to many; and assuring the general reader
who may feel desirous of further information, that the more he be
comes acquainted with the nature and objects of geological enquiries,
the more he will find them to possess in an eminent degree the charms
and advantages which are so eloquently described by Sir John Her-
schel, as being inseparably connected with the study of every branch
of natural philosophy. "To the natural philosopher there is no nat
ural object unimportant or trifling. From the least of nature's works
he may learn the greatest lessons. The fall of an apple to the ground
may raise his thoughts to the laws which govern the revolutions of the
planets in their orbits ; or the situation of a pebble may afford him
evidence of the state of the globe he inhabits, myriads of ages ago,
before his species became its denizens. Accustomed to trace the
operation of general causes, and the exemplification of general laws,
where the uninformed and unenquiring eye perceives neither novelty
nor beauty, he walks in the midst of wonders : every object which
falls in his way elucidates some principle, affords some instruction,
and impresses him with a sense of harmony and order ; while the ob
servation of the calm, energetic regularity of nature, the iraraense
scale of her operations, and the certainty with which her ends are at
tained, tends, irresistibly, to tranquillize and re-assure the mind, and
render it less accessible to repining, selfish and turbulent emotions.
And this it does, not by debasing our nature into weak compliances
and abject submission to circumstances, but by filling us, as from an
inward spring, with a sense of nobleness and power which enables us
to rise superior to them ; by showing us our strength and innate dig
nity, and by calling upon us for the exercise of those powers and
faculties by which we are susceptible of the comprehension of so
much greatness, and which form, as it were, a link between ourselves
and the best and noblest benefactors of our species, with whom we
hold communion in thoughts, and participate in discoveries, which
have raised them above their fellow-mortals, and brought them nearer
to their Creator."*

« Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, p. 14-17.

CONSISTKNOV OF GEOLOGY liVITH SACRED HISTORY. 39
IGNEOUS FORMATIONS.
1. Products of Active Volcanos.
It is sufficient, for the purpose of our present argument, simply to
name the products of active volcanos. They are well known ; their
Causes are now in active operation, and lava beds and currents are
still frequently forming, in many countries. They often bear, in their
very texture and features, palpable marks of the agency of fire, and
thus they inform us, in very intelligible language, that they are indeed
ignigenous : even when these features are not distinctly legible, it
often happens that the geographical and geological position of the
masses does not permit us to entertain a doubt of their volcanic ori
gin. We observe their currents, and we recognize their birth from
fire, even when they form beds of solid rock, which have no appear
ances of scorise, cinders, glass, or gaseous inflation, except, perhaps,
on their upper surfaces. No one doubts that volcanic currents over
flow whatever lies in their way, and therefore we find them covering,
occasionally, every geological formation, and every work of man
which can withstand the action of heat.
This topic was sufficiently illustrated in the introductory remarks,
and every one admits (what is indeed only a single instance of a gen*
eral truth in geology) that the superincumbent mass is, generally, of
more recent origin than that upon which it lies. The evidence pre*
sented by the eruptions of active volcanos, and the igneous formations
which they produce, goes then to establish the truth of geological
succession, but does not necessarily imply that its events are more
ancient than the commencement of organic life. This remark is lim
ited to volcanos strictly so called, and is not intended to include the
unstratified rocks, concerning the igneous or aqueous origin of which,
there has been, heretofore, much discussion and opposition of opinion,
although they are now generally attributed to the agency of heat.
2. Products of Extinct Volcanos.
Much philosophical scepticism formerly existed with respect to ex
tinct volcanos. They were vaguely referred to, but without decisive
proof of their real volcanic origin ; and many persons, very imper
fectly qualified to judge of such questions, were sufficiently inclined
to infer the existence of volcanos of former ages, wherever they saw
a conical hill, or almost any hill, with a hollow on its summit ; and
porous stones, of whatever kind, were referred to a similar origin.
It was a very imposing and sublime idea, that volcanic fire, still active
6

40 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
in our planet, and still bursting forth, in many places, with destructive
energy, had, in times long past, exerted agencies still more extensive —
covering provinces with ruins, and operating, even in the bed of the
primeval oceans. The speculation seemed to claim quite as much af
finity with poetical, as with philosophical conceptions, and it was not
till the middle of the last century, that the subject of extinct volcanos
began to be investigated with accuracy and skill.
It will be sufficient to name the much disputed country of Auvergne,
Velay, and Viverais, in France, which has been often visited an'd ex
amined by able geologists, and we believe, that within a few years
past, no one of them has left that region, without being convinced
that it is of volcanic origin. This district lies upon the river Rhone,
nearly in the angle formed by it wjth the Mediterranean, and covers a
square area of forty or fifty leagues in diameter.
Craters, regularly formed, often entire, sometimes with the thin and
scorified edge of the lip in fine preservation, and occasionally of vast
dimensions ; here, black, rugged and scathed tvith fire — there, over
grown with trees, and there, filled with water, forming lakes ; cur
rents of lava, lying where they flowed from the crater, or where
they burst from the side or foot of the ruptured .mountain,' extend
ing many miles, and many leagues, traceable directly to their source,
winding along the gorges and the sinuosities of the vallies, now and
then diverted from their course by rocks, hills, and other obstacles ;
sometimes damming up rivers, whose beds they have crossed or
obstructed, and thus forming lakes of considerable dimensions ; ex
hibiting all the varieties of lithoid lava, from that which is compact
and rock-like, to that which, in an incipient, or in a prevailing degree,
is porous and vesicular; crowned or mixed with slag, scoriae, pumice,
olivine, and other exuvia; of known and active volcanos ; displaying
frequently a structure, now spherical, ovoidal and concentric ; now
prismatic and columnar, and fronting streams, and bounding valleys,
with ranges of columns, equalling or rivalling the regularity of the
famous colonnades of Fingal's Cave and the Giant's Causeway; these
are a few of the most striking features of these countries,, which are
so affluent in proofs of igneous origin, that there is nothing needed,
but to select, carefully and judiciously, those facts which will be the
most decisive, especially with respect to minds not familiar with such
contemplations. The volcanos of the Auvergne, &c. are regarded as of different
ages ; some appear to have been active before the formation of the
present valleys, and some since ; where the currents of lava have

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 41
been cut through, by those ctuises which formed the present valleys,
they are then obviously older than the valleys, and where these cur
rents have flowed into valleys, beds of rivers, &c. they are as evi
dently of a more recent date.
Although the formation of these volcanic regions was anterior to
the records of history, it was, evidently, in the most recent portions,
posterior to the existence of organized beings, which are found im
bedded in the volcanic tufa.
The recent researches of Humboldt, " have greatly extended our
knowledge of the volcanic tracts of our globe ; he has shown the
whole country round the Caspian to be a vast district of this nature,
a " pays cratere," exactly resembling, in its general outlines, the tele
scopic appearance of the moon ; he has also pointed out another great
seat of volcanic action, the chain of Thion Chou, south of the Altai,
and running about 42° lat. N. and between 70° and SO'^ long. E. of
London. This vast ignigenous district extends over two thousand
five hundred square leagues, and being generally remote from every
sea, shows that marine contiguity, although a common, is by no means
an indispensable concomitant of volcanic action."*
For our purpose, it is not necessary to go any farther into detail,
with respect to this class of rocks. All that is true of modern erup
tions from active volcanos, considered as proofs of succession in geo
logical events, is true in the present case. Every thing was occasion
ally covered by the currents that issued from the ancient volcanos, and
there is no reason to doubt, that, as happens in connexion with mod
ern volcanic convulsions, destructive earthquakes preceded and attend
ed their eruptions.
It is not our purpose, on this occasion, to enter into the considera
tion of the theory of volcanos. It is undoubtedly obscure, and at
tended with many difficulties, especially in the extent to which the
view of igneous action is carried by most of the geologists of the
present day. "It is impossible, (says Conybeare,) to propose, as ex
planatory of volcanic phenomena, any probable theory, which does
not, at the same time, embrace the entire structure of the globe, in
all its generality."t 3. Ancient Rocks of Igneous Origin,
With respect to the extent of this class of rocks, there has been
great diversity of opinion.

* Discourse of Prof. Conybeare on Geology, at Oxford University, 1832.
t Discourse at Oxford, 1832.

43 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
Trap, porphyry, and pitchstone, have long been consigned over to
an igneous origin, and as there is no longer any difference of opinion
on this subject, it is not necessary here to enter into the discussion.*
Nor is it important to our argument, to adduce the proofs in favor
of the extension of the agency of fire, to the formation even of gran
ite itself, with all its family of rocks. The igneous origin of granite
is now generally, although not universally, admitted. It is, however,
of no importance to this discussion, whether granite, as well as the
other unstratified rocks, is of aqueous or igneous origin, since the
proofs of geological succession, which is all that our argument re
quires, are, in either case, sufficiently decisive.
The intrusion of the rocks supposed to be of igneous origin, among
those that are superincumbent, producing dykes and veins, often
much ramified ; the elevation and disruption of the upper strata ;
the confusion often induced among them ; the chemical changes pro
duced upon the contiguous masses, and the profuse and rich crystalli
zation of many of the primitive rocks, both in the minerals proper to
their constitution, and in those foreign ones which they contain im
bedded : all these afford decisive proofs of geological order, event,
Buccession, and time sufficient for the. phenomena.
Crystallization in Rocks.
No person in the least acquainted with the subject, hesitates to ad
mit that crystallization implies a previous state of corpuscular mobili
ty either in fluid, in fusion, in vapor, or at least in a state of softness
and diminished cohesion. Although crystallization is not confined to
any one geological period, it is eminently conspicuous in the primi
tive roclis.
They present to the eye of one who has been accustomed to ex
amine the results of chemical deposition, very decisive proofs that
their particles have been in that state of mobility, which leaves them
at liberty, to unite according to the laws of corpuscular attraction ;
the heterogeneous particles being connected by chemical, and the ho
mogeneous by mechanical attraction. Thus in feldspar, (if we in
clude both its necessary and occasional constituents) oxygen is an el
ement in all the binary compounds that enter into its constitution ;
in the silex it is united to silicon; in the potassa to 'potassium; in

* For a view of this subject, the reader is referred to Dr. Cooper's lecture, in the
fourth volume of the American Journal of Science,

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH BACRED HISTORY. 43
the soda to sodium ; in the lime to calcium, and in the usual con
taminating oxide, to iron. Supposing these to be the tiltiraate ele
ments of the mineral, the proximate principles would be produced,
first by their uniting, cheraically, to form these binary compounds ;
which would still farther unite, but still chemically, to form the inte
grant particles of the mineral and these particles united mechanically
by cohesion, would form the mineral itself.
The same reasoning may be applied to every variety of rocks and
minerals. Limestone, consisting for its immediate principles, of lime
carbonic add and water, contains, for its ultimate elements, accord
ing to the present state of our knowledge, calcium, carbon, hydrogen
and o.xygen ; the latter principle being united with each of the former
ones, so as to produce the lime, (oxygen and calcium,) the carbonic
acid, (carbon and oxygen,) and the water, (oxygen and hydrogen.)
If the limestone were a magnesian one, then we must add oxygen
and magnesium, and so of other earths, as silex or alumine, if they
were present.
How far back, and how near to the isolated, independent state, we
are to trace each element, we cannot determine. Whether the ele
ments were created, in the first place, in a state of perfect freedom,
and their earliest movement was, not so much, th?it of elemental war,
as of elemental combination; or whether, they werte combined in
pairs, and those pairs again combined, to form more complex results
we can never know with certainty ; and all our suggestions on this
subject being necessarily hypothetical, ought of course to be concisely
stated. But the discussion of these questions, which might easily be extend
ed to the most complex rocks, and to all their imbedded minerals,
however curious and even interesting, is in no way material to our
proceeding' to reason intelligibly — may we not say even conclusively,
upon the act or process, which must, according to physical laws, have
preceded the concretion of the materials of the primitive rocks.
Suppose the elements which are to form granite, to have already
united, and a previous state of chemical mobility, to have rendered
! such a result possible, a simultaneous deposition of the different min-
Ierals must of course happen ; the quartzy particles must fiud their
fellows, those of feldspar will do the same, and those of mica the
f, same, and the three minerals, bo'rn at the same moment, will find re-
% pose in the Same cradle. In the same manner, their ornamental com
panions, (not essicntial to the rock, but often studding it, like gems set
in royal robes) — the emeralds, the topazes, the garnets, the tourma-

44 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
lines and other crystallized minerals which sparkle in the bosom of
the primitive rocks declare a common birth.*
r~ True it is, that creative power would call the rocks into being,
without any arranging process in their parts, but no analogy counte
nances the truth of such a supposition, and neither moral nor physi
cal reasons oblige us to admit so improbable a supposition.
Who has contemplated the stupendous garnets of Fahlun — the
equally gigantic quartz and felspar crystals of the Alps — the more
delicate emeralds of Brazil and Ethiopia — the variously colored tour
malines of Chesterfield, and Goshen, Mass., and of Paris in Maine
— the floor and calcareous spars of Derbyshire and Cumberland — the
idocrases of Vesuvius, and the rubies and sapphires of Ceylon and
other regions of India, the bubbles of air included with water and
other fluids in quartz — the fibres of amianthus — the crystals of titani
um— the filaments of native copper and silver shut up in the same
mineral — the successive crystallizations of galena- — ^sulphate of bary-
tes — calcareous spar — quartz and flucr spar, often included in the
same group — the splendid amethystine and other geodes — little grot
toes lined with polished and beautiful geometrical figures — who has
seen all these things — the ornaments of our cabinets, and has doubted
that they were as truly the results of crystallization,, as any of the
products of art, which are formed in our laboratories ? ,
Crystallization is indeed not exclusively the attribute of primitive
regions; but in such regions it is eminently conspicuons, and if we
find crystals in the productions of every geological age, we are thus
furnished with proof, that these agencies continued to operate, al
though with less frequency and energy, through all succeeding peri
ods, and that they have not ceased even in our own times,! for mine
ral crystals are, every moment forming around us.

* Prof. Hitchcock, in his geology of Massachusetts, considers the simultaneous
and mixed crystallization of the different minerals in granite, as affording decisive
proof of its igneous origin, since, as he avers, aqueous solutions of different sub
stances crystallize, always successively, and never in promiscuous confusion.
t I have obtained crystals of calcareous spar — of sulphate of barytes and of
sulphate of lime and some of them repeatedly as accidental results in chemical
processes : I have seen even quartz crystals form rapidly under my eye, and others
have cited them as slowly produced with .regularity and beauty, from the fluoric
solution of silex. Crystals of pyroxene — specular iron, titanium and other mine
rals have been produced by volcanic and furnace heat ; more than forty species of
minerals have been observed in the slags of furnaces, and while pyroxene has been
produced by the action of fire upon the constituents of this mineral, and after fu
sion, it has re-crystallized, in the same form. — Am. Jour. Vol. 10, p. 190.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH BACRED HISTORt. 45
Still no one finds in the upper secondary rocks— rmuch less in the
tertiary, the numerous and grand crystals that are common in the
primitive, and even to a degree in the transition and early secondary
formations, nor does any one look for those grand crystal cavities,
fours a cristavx, as they have been fancifully called,* except in the
ancient mountains, and in the veins and beds by which they are in
tersected. No person who has been conversant with chemical effects can easily
confound them with those of mere mechanical deposition. Take a
piece of the most beautiful granite— its quartz is translucent if not
transparent — its feldspar is foliated in structure, presenting two regu
lar cleavage planes, united -at definite angles — its mica is perfectly fo
liated, and splits into innumerable thin laminas, each of which, is per
fectly transparent and has a high lustre, and this last property is com
mon (sometimes in a less degree,) to the quartz and the feldspar.
Gneiss and mica slate and saccharoidal limestone are distinguished, in
a greater or less degree by similar characteristics. Now, translucen-
cy — transparency — lustre — cleavage-planes, and regular structure,
are known and established results of chemical dej)osition and are
never the effect of mechanical aggregation. Compare the above
properties, with those found in a piece of clay, and no person, how
ever unskilled in physical characteristics, can possibly attribute them
to a similar origin. The latter has as obviously sprung from me
chanical as the former from chemical laws ; — mechanical suspension
must have preceded the one, and solution, fusion or sublimation the
other. Crystallization is the most exalted agency of the mineral kingdom
and it answers to organization in the animal and vegetable. It results
in the production of regular solids — often of beautiful figures, bound
ed almost always, by plane faces, which constitute the outline of beau
ty in the mineral kingdopi, as the curve line does in the organized king
doms. — HaiJA),
Proximate Causes of Crystallization in the Earth,
Of the original state of the materials of our planet, as first formed
by the Creator, we know nothing. It is, however, in the highest de
gree improbable, that the innumerable crystals of so many different
substances and forms, which we find in the earth were originally crea-

* Patrin's mineralogical travels..

46 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
ted as we now see them. Crystallization by natural laws is constant
ly going on around us and we can at pleasure, form crystals of many
substances ; in some cases, we produce those that never have been dis
covered in nature, and in others we can surpass them in size and beau
ty. Although, as already remarked, it is possible that crystals might
have been the first forms of mineral matter, it is in the highest de
gree improbable ; it is far more reasonable and philosophical to admit
that wherever we find a crystal in the earth, it has been formed by the
laws of crystallization operating upon the crude materials and there
is no reason to doubt that we could always imitate natural crystals,
provided we could command the powers and circumstances which ope
rated in the original crystallization of mineral bodies. In all the
geological epochs, after the primitive, there is decisive evidence of
great mechanical changes,* operating first on the primitive rocks, to
produce the materials for the derivative rocks, which often exhibit
unquestionable proofs of mechanical destruction and mechanical form
ation ; in a word, of changes from the pristine state of the materials
in the primitive rocks, greater than crystallization implies in relation .
to the constituent or integrant particles, which we may presume to
have been originally created.
As to the proximate causes of crystallization among minerals it
can be referred only to two agents, heat and solution. The only pow
ers with which we are acquainted, that are at all equal to the effect,
are water, and fire, aided by various acid, alkaline, saline, and other
energelic chemical agents, which, in large quantities, we now find
actually entering into the constitution of the rocks, and which were
therefore originally provided in the grand store-house of created ma
terials. The solution theory, once almost universally prevalent, has now
given way to the igneous, which not stopping with actual or extinct
volcanos or with trap, porphyry or pitchstone, has taken possess
ion of the granite mountains and of the very centre of the earth.
It undoubtedly explains with great felicity, the appearances of gran
ite veins and of many other phenomena, although neither the igneous
nor any other theory has explained every feature of the planet.
It is allowed b/ nearly all geologists, that the ocean has for a long
time occupied all countries. It is now evident also, that ignition
and fusion have always existed in the earth on a great scale, and this
* Among the primitive rocks, mechanical force is exhibited in fractures, eleva
tions, &c. '

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 47
is admitted by all whether they believe in the fusion of the centj-al
nucleus or not. Internal fire still prevails to a great extent in the in
terior of our planet, and its effects appear to have been the greatest,
and the most extensive in the earliest periods. Volcanic mountains
and islands are known to have risen, even in modern times, from the
bosom of the ocean and islands are still existing where in former
ages the sea raged uncontrolled. The sub-marine volcanos also oc
casionally project flames, smoke, and- red-hot stones through the ocean,
and thus inform us, that water cannot always subdue fire, that even
now, there are strata, at the bottom of the sea, where extreme igni
tion and extreme hydrostatic pressure, operate conjointly, upon the
firm materials; and that both, aided by the principal chemical agents
which we know to exist in the constitution of our globe, may unite to
produce results of which our trifling experiments can give us but a
feeble conception. An attempt for instance, to dissolve granite by j
boiling it in water is just as rational as an attempt to melt it in a com- |
mon fire ; neither experiment can possibly succeed ; but the former |
would not prove that, granite was never dissolved nor the latter, that '
granite was never melted ; because, the circumstances which may have i
operated in the interior of the earth are not under our control and ourl
experiments are therefore nugatory. I
In volcanic countries, silex is certainly dissolved by hot alkaline
water under great hydrostatic and steam pressure, and granite is as
certainly melted in the intense heat of deep seated fire.*
We should accept with equal readiness the aid of fire or water, or
other agents, as they may appear best adapted to explain a given ef
fect, and we should not hesitate to call in all the great natural powers
whether mechanical or chemical, as there may be occasion.
There is no doubt that fire and water and other powerful chem
ical agents have operated in all ages in producing mineral crystalliza
tion. Of these however, fire appears to have been by far the most
active, and although it is not proved by actual experiment, or even
by rigorous observation, there is every reason to admit that even
granite has been melted in the bowels of the earth and therefore may
crystallize from a state of igneous fusion. If this be true of the prop
er crystals of granite, it may be also true of the imbedded crystals
which it contains, and therefore of all other crystals. Those which

* It appears now to be generally conceded, agreeably to the conclusions of Cor-
dier that the temperature of the earth increases'as we descend. Sources of er
ror have been indeed pointed out, but they appear to be local and accidental,
7

48 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
contain much water of crystallization may present a serious difficulty,
but perhaps pressure may have retained the water and as the parts
of the mineral concreted, in cooling, the molecules of water may have
taken their place in the regular solid. Still \ve can see no reason for
excluding water and other dissolving agents, acting with intense ener
gy under vast pressure and at the heat of even high ignition, from
playing a very important part in crystallization.
If we give granite to igneous fusion it is hardly possible to avoid
admitting the conjoined action of water on the crystallized slaty rocks
that usually cover it.
Nature and Application of the Argument,
It is we trust obvious that we have been occupied, not in the su
perfluous labor, of giving a complete system, but in selecting from
the great store house of nature, a few facts taken from the principal
geological classes and epochs, to evince that our planet, before it was
inhabited by man, was subjected to a long Course of formation and ar
rangement, the object of which evidently was, to fit it for the recep
tion, first of plants and animals, and finally of the human race.
In that remote period of which he who recorded the fact probably
knew not the date : — In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth, and established the physical laws, the ordinances of heaven,
)by which the material world was to be governed.
The earliest condition of the surface of the planet, appears to have
I been that of a dark abyss of waters of unknown depth and continu
ance, which repressed the deep seated forces of internal fires.
The structure of the crust of the planet affords decisive evidence of
a long series of events, in relation both to the formation of rocks, and
to the creation and succession of organized bodies, of which many of
them contain such astonishing quantities.
Time and order of time ; event, succession and revolution are plain
ly recorded in the earth ; and sacred history expressly states that the
events involved both time and order of time.
Geology cannot decide on the amount of time, but it assures us
that there was enough to cover all the events connected with the for
mation of the mineral masses, and with the succession of the genera
tions of living beings, whose remains are found preserved in the
strata. It is obvious that ages must have passed, while the various geolo
gical events, which are recorded in the structure of the earth, were
happening, and particularly while the innumerable organic forms,

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 49
after their creation, were in the course of reproduction, life, death,
deposition, consolidation, and preservation.
We will not enquire whether almighty power inserted plants and ani- '
mals in mineral masses, and was thus exerted in working a long series
of useless miracles, without design or end, and therefore incredible.
The man who can believe, for example, that the Iguanodon, with his
gigantic form, seventy feet in length, ten in height, and fifteen in girth,
was created in the midst of consolidated sandstone, and placed down
one thousand or twelve hundred feet from the surface of the earth, in
a rock composed of ruins and fragments, and containing vegetables,
shells, fish, and rolled pebbles ; such a man can believe any thing,
with or without evidence. If there are any such persons, we must
leave them to their own reflections, since they cannot be influenced
by reason and sound argument; with them we can sustain no discuss
ion, for there is no common ground upon which we can meet.
The order of the physical events, discovered by geology, is the
same as that recorded by the sacred historian ; that is, as far as the
latter has gone, for it was, evidently, no part of his object to enter
any farther into details, than to state that the world was the work of
God, and thus he was naturally led to mention the principal divisions
of natural things, as they were successively created. ^
The Bible is not a book of physical science, and its allusions to
physical subjects are, in the main, adapted to common apprehensions.
Still, the creation and the deluge, although they have a momentous
moral bearing, are, in their nature, entirely physical. Why should
any one refuse to attend to a history of these two stupendous events,
merely because that history professes to have proceeded from the same
author as the work itself; and why should we suppose that the brief
notices of the great physical facts, connected with a physical creation
and a physical destruction, are not correctly stated, in this earhest_
and most venerable of histories 1
If all our discoveries regarding the surface and the interior of the
planet tend, when properly understood, to confirm the credibility of
both these events, and to enable us to discriminate between the cir
cumstances and evidence which belong to them respectively — what 1
moral consideration can, in this case, forbid a happy apphcation of
the discoveries of science, and why should science refuse to lend its
aid to the support of moral truth !
The question then recurs ; — how can the amount of time be found,
consistently with the Mosaic history, for the order of time is the same.
The solution of this difficulty has been attempted in the following
modes.

50 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
1. The present earth was formed from the ruins and fragments of
an earlier world, re-arranged and set in order during the six days
of the creation.
This explanation has been given by men of powerful minds — strong
ly impressed with the overwhelming evidence which the earth presents
of innumerable events, and of progressive development through suc
cessive ages. It therefore honestly meets the difficulty, and fully
grants the necessity of allowing sufficient time for the series of geo
logical formations. It is, however, unsatisfactory ; because it does
not provide at all for the regular successions of entombed animal
and vegetable races, and for the progressive consolidation, often in
long continued tranquillity, of the strata which are formed around
the organic bodies, and also for the numerous alternations and repeti
tions of these strata, frequently, as in the coal fields, in a regular or
der. All this demands time, arid seasons of protracted repose, inter
rupted indeed by occasional elevations, subsidences, and other con
vulsions and catastrophes. In order that the solution above stated
may prove satisfactory, it is necessary that the earth should be, what
it actually is not, a confused pile of ruins, not only of loose fragments,
such as are now found on its surface, but they must be consolidated,
to form all its mountains and strata. Ruins, the mountains and strata
do indeed, in many places, contain, but they form only a portion of a '"
vast structure, in which ruins have no part.
The earth is unlike Memphis, Thebes, Persepolis, Babylon, Balbec
or Palmyra, which present merely confused and mutilated masses of
colossal and beautiful architecture, answering no purpose, except to
gratify curiosity, and to awaken a sublime and pathetic moral feel
ing; — it is, rather, like modern Rome, replete indeed with the ruins of
the ancient city, in part rearranged for purposes of utility and orna
ment, but also covered by the regular and perfect constructions of
subsequent centuries.
This theory, if it provide at all for the primitive rocks, must assign
their crystallization and consolidation to a period of indefinite geolo
gical antiquity, and it miist also admit that they have undergone more
recent modifications, particularly in being upheaved by subterranean
force, and thus elevating, not only themselves, but the superincumbent
strata. The hypothesis has, however, great merit, inasmuch as it admits, in
the long-gone-by ages, of just such events and successions as geology
has proved to have taken place ; but it adds a general catastrophe,
which has not happened, and it implies a reconstruction of the crust

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 51
of the planet, entirely out of its own ruins, a supposition which is in
consistent with the state of facts.
2. The present crust of the planet has been regularly formed be
tween the first creation "in the beginning,"* and the commencement
of the first day.
It appears to be admitted by critics, that the period alluded lo in
the first verse of Genesis, "in the beginning," is not necessarily con
nected with the .first day. It may therefore be regarded as standing
by itself, and as it is not limited, it admits of any extension backward
in time which the facts may require.f
By asserting that there was a beginning, it is declared that the world
is not eternal, and the declaration that God made the heavens and the
earth, is a bar, equally, against atheism and materialism. The world
was, therefore, made in time by the omnipotent Creator.
The creation of the planet was no doubt instantaneous, as regards
the materials, but the arrangement, at least of the crust, was gradual.
As a subject either of moral or physical contemplation, we can say
nothing better, than that it was the good pleasure of God that this
world should be called into existence ; but, it was also his pleasure,
that the arrangement, by which it vyas to become a fit habitation for
man, should be progressive.
This is in strict analogy with the regular course of things in the
physical, moral and intellectual world. Everything, except God, has
a beginning, and every thing else is progressive. The human mind,

* " Of old, hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the
work of thy hands.'' Ps, cii, 25. "And thou, Lord, in tlie beginning , hast laid
the foundation of the earth." Heb; i. 10.
t " This statement appears to be entirely distinct from all that follows." — W. M.
Higgins, F. G. S.; the Mosaic and Mineral Geologies: London, 1833.
" In this view I find no diflioulties, either as a divine or a philosopher." — Private
correspondence of the Editor with an eminent biblical critic and divine.
Dr. Chalmers says — "Does Moses ever say, that when God created the heavens
and the earth, he did more, at the time alluded to, than transform them out of pre
viously existing materials % Or does he ever say, that there was not an interval of
many ages betwixt the first act of creation, described in the first verse of the book
of Genesis, and said to have been performed in the beginning, and those more de
tailed operations, the account of which commences at the second verse, and which
are described to us as having been performed in so many days 1 Or, finally, does
he ever make us understand, that the generations of man went further than to fix
the antiquity of the species, and of consequence that they left the antiquity of the
globe a free subject for the speculations of philosophers." — Evid. Christ. Rev. in
Edin. Encyc.

52 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
the bodily powers, the inception and growth of the animal and vegeta
ble races, the seasons, seed time and harvest, science and arts, wealth,
civilization, national power and character, and a thousand things more,
evince, that progression is stamped upon every thing, and that nothing
reaches its perfection by a single leap.
The gradual preparation of this planet for its ultimate destination,
presents therefore no anomaly, and need not excite our surprise.
It is of no importance to us, whether our home was in a course of
preparation, during days or ages, for the moral dispensations of God
to man could not begin until his creation.
The abyss of waters which existed at an early unknown period, be
fore the time of the final arrangement of the surface, which preceded
the creation of man, and continued, we may suppose, for an unlimited
time, is just such a state of things, in coincidence with the operation
of internal fire, as is demanded for the formation of the central rocks,
and for their elevation, as far as facts may justify us in supposing that
it took place so early.
The supposition now before us is equally consistent with both the
igneous and the aqueous theory of the earth; and indeed it would be
impossible to account for the appearance of things, without the con
joined agency of internal fire, and of an incumbent ocean ; the latter
repressing the expansive and explosive power of the former, causing
its heat greatly to accumulate, even to the fusion of the most refrac
tory materials ; preventing the escape of gaseous matter, as, for in
stance, of carbonic acid gas from the limestones, and by its pressure
and slow cooling, from the small conducting power of water, pre
venting melted rocks from assuming the appearance of volcanic cin
ders, slags, scorias, and other inflated masses.
The incumbent ocean is therefore indispensable to the correct de
ductions of the theoretical geologist, even if he believe in the igne
ous origin of the primitive rocks : still more, if he attribute these
rocks to dissolving agencies.
With these views, then, the historical record happily agrees, and
i;eology has no quarrel with the sacred history.
During the period when this dark abyss of waters prevailed, the
.earth was without form, and void, or better, as Hebricians say — "the
earth was invisible and unfurnished ;" we may presume that then
the early operations of geological formation and arrangement began,
by producing the fundamental rocks, and thus providing materials
for all the derivative strata, which, in the course of their consolida
tion, were destined to embosom such an endless diversity of extra
neous contents.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 53
This theory then is satisfactory as far as it goes : like the one pre
viously discussed, it fairly recognizes and encounters the real difficulty
in the case, and it would be quite sufficient to reconcile geology and
the Mosaic History, as usually understood, did not the latter assign
particular events to each of the successive periods called days ; the
most important of these events are, the first emergence of the moun
tains, and the creation of organized and living beings. It seems ne
cessary therefore to embrace the days in the series of geological pe
riods ; and the difficulties of our subject will not be removed, unless
we can show that there is time enough included in those periods
called days, to cover the organic creation, and the formation of the
rocks, in which the remains of these bodies are contained.
3. The days of the creation were periods of time of indefinite
length. Instead of most of the observations, which we might otherwise
have made on this head, we shall substitute a comment on some of
the lectures of the late illustrious Cuvier, by a distinguished philoso
pher, Prof. Jameson, of Edinburgh.* It is not necessary to speak of
the eminence of those gentlemen in science, or of their attachment to
the sacred writings ; both are well known.
We would observe, that while we fully accord with Prof. Jameson
in the general course of his argument, we leave his particular criti
cisms on some minor points, to, those who are qualified to judge of
their merits, Cuvier remarks : —
" The books of MosOs shew us, that he had very perfect ideas re
specting several of the highest questions of natural philosophy. His
cosmogony especially, considered in a purely scientific view, is ex
tremely remarkable, inasmuch as the order which it assigns to the
different epochs of creation, is precisely the same as that which has
been deduced from geological considerations."
This, then, is the issue, in the opinion of Baron Cuvier, of that sci
ence, which has been held by many persons to teach conclusions at
variance with the Book of Genesis,— ^when at last more matured by a
series of careful observations and legitimate induction, it teaches us
precisely what Moses had taught more than three thousand years ago.
******
The first chapter of Genesis is written in a pure Hebrew. This
was the language spoken, and afterwards extensively written, by the
people whom Moses conducted to Palestine from the land of Goshen.
* Am. Jour. vol. xxv. pa. 26.

54 CONSISTENCY OP GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
That it differed greatly from the language of the Egyptians, we have
full proof in the Coptic remains of the latter, in the Egyptian proper
names preserved in the Hebrew writings, and also in the circumstance
that Joseph, when pretending to be an Egyptian, conversed with his
brethren by means of an interpreter. Yet, in the chapter in ques
tion, we find no foreign terms, no appearance of its being translated
from any other tongue ; but, on the contrary, it bears every inter
nal mark of being purely original, for the style is condensed and
idiomatical in the very highest degree. Had Moses derived his sci
ence from Egypt, either by oral comraunication, or the study of Egyp
tian writings, it is inconceivable that some of his terms, or the style of
his composition, should not, in some point or other, betray the plagi
ary or copyist.
But the conjecture that Moses borrowed his cosmogony from the
Egyptians, must rest, moreover, on a supposition that the order which
he assigns for the different epochs of creation, had been determined by
a course of observation and induction, and the correct application of
many other highly perfected sciences to the illustration of the, subject,
equal at least in their accuracy and philosophical precision, to those
by which our present geological knowledge has been obtained.
Nothing less than this can account for Moses' teaching us precisely
what the modern geology teaches, if we allow knowledge to be mere
ly human. How com,es it to pass, then, that while he has given us
the perfect and satisfactory results, he has been enabled so totally to
exclude from his record every trace of the steps by which they were
obtained ? The supposition of such perfection of geological knowl
edge in ancient Egypt, implies a long series of observation by many
individuals, having the same object in view. It implies of necessity,
also, the invention and use of many defined terms of science, without
which there could have been no mutual understanding among the dif
ferent observers, and of course no progress in their pursuit. These
terms have all totally disappeared in the hands of Moses. He trans
lated, with precision, the whole science of geology into the language
of shepherds and husbandmen, leaving no trace whatever of any one
of its peculiar terms, any more than of the curious steps in its pro
gress. But there is a phenomenon in his record still more unaccountable
upon any supposition that his science is merely human. His geolo
gy, acknowledged by the highest authority in this age of scientific im
provement to be thus accurate, dwindles down in his hands to be a
merely incidental appendage to an enunciation of the most rational

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 65
and sublime theology. This latter he did not learn in Egypt, for it
was in the possession of his ancestors while they were yet inhabitants
of Canaan.
Shall we, then, conjecture that Moses borrowed theology from the
Hebrews on the one hand, and geological science from the Egyptians
on the other, to compound out of them that brief, but unique and per
fect system of both, which is presented to us in the first chapter of
Genesis ; or, is it possible that we could adopt any conjecture more
absurd, and this, too, in utter destitution of all proof that the Egyp
tians possessed any knowledge of geology in the sense in which we
use the term ?
The result of our inquiry is, that the geology of Moses has come
down to us out of a period of remote antiquity before the light of hu
man science arose ; for, to suppose that it was borrowed from, or pos
sessed by any other people than the remarkable race to which Moses
himself belonged, involves us on all hands in the most inextricable dif
ficulties and palpable absurdities.* Of that race, it has been long
since justly remarked, that while in religion they were men, in hu
man learning and science they were children ; and if we find in their
records any perfect system of an extensive and difficult science, we
know they have not obtained it by the regular processes of observa
tion and induction, which, in the hands of European philosophers,
have led to a high degree of perfection in many sciences.
Let us now, then, inquire into the true value and necessary result of
Baron Cuvier's statement, " that the cosmogony of Moses assigns to
the epochs of creation precisely the same order as that which has been
deduced from geological consideration."
Before we proceed to that detail and comparison of particulars which
are necessary in the due prosecution of the inquiry, we purpose to
shew that a right understanding of the terms employed by Moses,
* We believe that the opinion of Calmet may be maintained by very extensive
and highly satisfactory internal evidence, that Moses, in the book of Genesis, has
transmitted to us the successive writings of the earlier Patriarchs, just as the
Prophets, who succeeded him, have transmitted to us that book and his own wri
tings. We believe, likewise, with Bishop Gleig, that the opinion generally enter
tained of the lateinvention of alphabetical writing, is no other than avulgar error,
and that such writing must have been practised before the flood of Noah.
Sir William Jones, when he hazarded the conjecture, or rather opinion, that the
language of Noah is probably entirely lost, must have quite overlooked the inter
nal evidences, that the original language of Genesis can be no other than the lan
guage of both Noah and Adam. But these questions are too important and exten
sive to be more than thus briefly alluded to in a note.
8

56 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY V.'ITH SACRED HISTORY,
will lead us to several more affrecments between his statements and
the results of the modern geology, than are indicated by our common
English translation. This will lead us into a critical examination of
several of these terms. We do not mean to hinge much of these crit
icisms on grammatical niceties, but to rest them chiefly on an examin
ation of other passages of I-Iebrew Scriptures, where the terms are al
so emplo3fed, and where the context throws Such light on them, as
puts an end to all doubt about their true import. This is a process of
criticism which is universally allowed to be quite satisfactory, where
we have sources for employing it, as happens to be the case in the
present instance.
To make our criticisms intelligible, without the labor of turning to
the passages quoted, we shall quote the common English translation
to such an extent as may bo necessary.
The term, the meaning of which we shall first investigate, is "day'''
(in the Hebrew, yom.) The interpretation of this, in the sense
"epoch" or "period," has been a subject of animadversion, of anun-
neces.sary severity in some cases. A careful examination of the first
chapter of Genesis itself, leads unavoidably to the conclusion, that our
natural day of one revolution of the sun cannot be meant by it, for we
find that no fewer than three of the six days had passed before the
measure of our present day was established. It was only on the
fourth day, or epoch of the creation, " that God made two great lights
to divide the day from the night, and to be for signs, and for seasons,
and for days and for years." The very first time that the term oc
curs in the Hebrew text, after the history of the six days' work, and
of the rest of the seventh, as if to furnish us with definite information
regarding its true import, we find it employed in a similar manner to
that in which w'O must understand It here ; for, in Gen. ii. 4, we have,
"These are the generations of tlie heavens and the earth, in the day
(beyom) that the Lord God made the earth and heavens." The use
of the terra in this indefinite sense is so common iu the Hebrew v/ri-
tings, that it would be a great labor to quote all the passages in which
it is found ; and v.e shall satisfy ourselves by at present referring to
Job xviii. 20, where it is put for the whole period of a man's life,
" They that come after him shall l)c astonished at Ms day " (yomu) ;
and Isaiah xxx. 8, where it is put for all future time, " Now go note
it in a book, that it may be for the latter day (leyoin), for ever and
ever." It is quite obvious, from these examples, that the Hebrews
used the term (yom) to express long periods of time. The very con
ditions of the history in this chapter, prove that it must be here so un
derstood.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 67
They who object to this interpretation of the term here, immedi
ately quote against it the reason added to the fourth commandment,
"For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all
that in them is, and rested the seventh daj% wherefore the Lord blerss-
ed the Sabbath-day and sanctified it." This is, however, no more than
a brief reference, and the terras of it must tliercfore be strictly inter
preted in accordance with those of the detail to which the reference is
made. It has been said that such an interpretation goes to nullify the rea
sons assigned for the sanctification of every seventh revolution of the
sun; but this does not follow. In point of fact, the rest from the
work of creation (we use this form of speech from the example before
us) did not endure for only one revolution, of the sun, but has contin
ued since the creation of man ; and we have no grounds on which to
establish even a conjecture of the time of its coining to a close ; so
that if we were urged to adopt a period of twenty four hours as the
meaning of yom, that the six days of creation might literally corres
pond with our six working days, we should then find the apparent dis
agreement, which, by this process, we would endeavor to avoid, trans
ferred to our weekly period of rest, and the rest from the work of
creation. It will surely be readily allowed, that the sanctification of the Sab
bath has respect to man and his duties ; and since his Creator has been
made known to him, and the order of the six successive epochs in
which the earth was rendered fit for his habitation ; if we are to allow
what surely no reflecting mind will ever deny, that it is his duty to
reflect with gratitude on the blessing he has received, and to main
tain in his heart a sense of his dependence upon, and responsibility
to him, who made the heavens and the earth, and all that they contain,
no method could have been devised better calculated for preserving
these feelings in constant activity than appointing some definite por
tion of time, returning at short intervals, to be devoted to the con
templations that awaken them, nor any interval more appropriate
than that which so directly recalls the order of the events of the
creation. Since we have introduced the subject of the measure of our pres
ent day, we would offer an observation regarding the work of the
fourth day, which includes the sun, moon and stars. Respectifig the
period of their creation, geology, from its nature, gives us no precise
ly definite indications. The history regarding them is from the 14th
to the 18th verses, and we would observe of it, that the terms employ-

58 CONSISTENCY 01' GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
ed are such as do not not absolutely imply that these bodies were at
this epoch first created, but admit of the interpretation that their mo
tions were then first made the measures of our present days and sea
sons. We had found it already stated in the 1st verse, that the heav
ens and the earth were created in the beginning, antecedently to the
work of the six days, by which they were reduced to their present
order, and the earth was peopled with organized beings. It would
seem an unwarrantable interpretation to exclude the sun, moon and
stars from among the objects expressed by the general terms, the
heavens and the earth. It is the most obvious interpretation, that
they were then created, and were lighted up on the first day, but that
it was only during the fourth epoch, that they were made, the greater
light to rule over the present day, and the lesser light to rule over the
present night, and to be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and
for years, according to the measures of time, which we now find es
tablished by them. This part of the history, then, when interpreted
in consistency with the 1st verse, and without any violence to the
terms, implies, (in the common language of men, which, in all na
tions, refers the diurnal and annual revolutions of the heavenly bodies
to the motions of these bodies themselves,) that the earth was during
this epoch, finally brought into its present orbit.
The work of the third epoch was the appearance of the dry land,
and the creation of the vegetable kingdom. The history of the latter
in our common translation, is v. 11, " God said. Let the earth bring
forth grass (in the margin tender grass,) the herb yielding seed, and
the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon
the earth : audit was so." V. 13, "And the earth brought forth
grass, and the herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding
fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind.'' The terms grass (in
Hebrew, deshe,) herb (Hebrew, oeseb,) and tree (Hebrew etz,) are
here all put disjunctively in the Hebrew ; there being only one conjunc
tion in the twelfth verse between herb and tree, which does not affect
the disjunctive character of the three terras, as it is a common prac
tice in the Hebrew writings to couple, in this manner, the two last of
a series of disjunctive terms, as, for example, the names of the four
kings in Genesis xiv. 1. In the two last of these terms, herb and
tree, we find a recognition of a remarkable natural distinction among
the vegetable tribes, and this very circumstance would lead us to infer
that the first term, which has obviously presented a difficulty to our
translators, since they have given two interpretations of it, is intend
ed to express some class or tribe of the vegetable kingdom, naturally

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 59
¦distinguished from herbs and trees, as they are from one another. The
term in question (deshe) is a noun from a verb, which, from Joel ii.
22, we learn the meaning is to spring, to shoot, to vegetate, " Be not
afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do
spring, (dasheu.") In the 11th verse under consideration, we find
both the verb and the noun, for the words translated " Let the earth
bring forth" are (tadeshe haaretz,) which, in accordance with the
obvious sense in Joel, would be better rendered " Let the earth shoot
out." From this meaning of the verb, then, the noun, would signify
the springing or shooting plant, and as used here in contradistinction
to both herbs and trees bearing seeds, it is surely not recommending
any forced interpretation to suggest that it is meant to express that
class of vegetables, which all botanists recognise as being naturally
distinguished by the obscurity of their means of reproduction.
It tends to support this interpretation, that the Hebrew has a dif
ferent term for grass, the common food of Cattle (chatzir,) which the
lexicographers have shewn is derived from its tubular structure. Thus,
in Job, xl. 15, we have "he eateth grass (chatzir) as an ox;" and,
Psalm civ. 14, "He causeth grass (chatzir) to grow for the cattle."
In several passages besides this of Genesis, we find deshe contra
distinguished from both oeseb and chatzir, as in Deuteronomy xxxii. 2,
"As the small rain upon the tender herb (deshe), and as the showers
upon the grass (oeseb);" and Psalm xxxvii. 2, "They shall soon be
cut down like the grass (chatzir), and wither like the green herb
(deshe);" and 2d Kings xix. 26, "They were as the herb (oeseb) of
the field, as the green herb (deshe), as the grass (chatzir) on the
house tops." These quotations shew the want of uniformity with
which the English translators have rendered these terras, and go to
support the sense we would assign to deshe.
But we must not conceal that there are three passages in which this
word occurs, that might seem to imply, until closely examined, that
we should not be warranted to restrict the sense of it in the manner
proposed. One is in the 23d Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd, I
sha;ll not want. He maketh me to he down in the pastures of tender
grass* (deshe)." On thi.^ we have to observe, that the word render
ed here in the pastures, has been rendered in the Vulgate, in various
places where it occurs, and by the Septuagint in some instances, de
sirable or beautiful places, and their accuracy in doing this seems
confirmed by the circumstance, that the Hebrew has another term for

^ The marginal translation, which is the literal one.

60 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
pasture ; and if this interpretation of that word be admitted, then
deshe might signify here plants rather fitted for lying down on, as the
mosses and ferns, than for pasture, which would make out a consistent
image expressed in this clause or sentence, in opposition to the one
derived from the abundance of pasture, which is evidently already
sufficiently completed in the terms, "The Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want." This passage, then, when rightly understood, rather
serves to confirm the meaning which we have suggested for deshe.
Another passage is Job vi. 5, "Doth the wild ass bray when he hath
grass (deshe), or loweth the ox over his fodder?" but no stress can
be laid upon this, when we consider that both the ass and the horse
eat, of choice, various species of ferns and equiseta, a fact which it is
not unreasonable to suppose might be known to the author of a book
which contains so much accurate and interesting natural history as
this of Job. The plants, whatever they might be, which formed a
supply for the wild ass, are at least obviously set in contradistinction
to those which formed the fodder of the ox. The third passage is
Jeremiah 1. 11, "because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass
(deshe)." But there is, in a great number of manuscripts, a various
reading for deshe here, by which the meaning becomes, "ye are
grown fat, like a heifer thrashing, or treading, out the corn;" and sev
eral circumstances shew the latter reading to be the more probably
correct one.
It remains, then, very highly probable, upon the whole, that deshe,
in the 11th and 12th verses, is intended to express the cryptogamous
vegetation. In our observations on the terms emplyed in the history of the cre
ation of the animals, we shall arrive at some important conclusions
that are m.ore absolutely certain.
The first thing that we would observe in regard to this, is, that there
are two distinct words, of very different origin, which the English
translators have rendered, promiscuously, creeping creatures or thing,
and also moving creatures, following, no doubt, the authority of the
Septuagint, which has given ipirsTa for both ; thus occasioning a great
confusion instead of a clear and perspicuous order of creations exhib
ited in the Hebrew text. The first of these words is sheretz, as in
verse 20th, in the history of the fifth day's work, " God said. Let the
waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature (sheretz);" in the
margin, the creeping creature. This word is from a verb, which sig
nifies to brin g forth, or to increase, or to multiply abundantly, being
the very verb which is rendered bring forth abundantly in the 20th

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOOY WITH SACRED HISTORY. CI
verse, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly," (is heretzu hamaim).
We find the verb obviously having this meaning in other passages, of
which we shall quote examples: Gen. viii. 17, "That they may breed
abundantly (vesharetzu) in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply in
the earth;" Exod. i. 7, "And the children of Israel were fruitful and
increased abundantly (vaisheretzu), and multiplied, and waxed exceed
ing mighty, and the land was filled with them ;" Exod. viii. 3, "And
the river shall bring forth (rags abundantly {Yesharatz), * * * and
the frogs shall come up both on thee and on thy people, and upon all
thy servants."
From all this it appears that the proper translation of the noun
sheretz u not the creeping but the rapidly multiplying creature.
The creatures expressed by this noun were part of those which were
created during the fifth epoch.
The other word translated creeping thing is (remes), and the crea
tures expressed by the noun were created during the sixth epoch.
We shall afterwards shew that it has a very different meaning from
sheretz. In the history of the fifth day's work, the translators have rendered
the Hebrew word (oph), by fowl. This limits its meaning so as to
include only the birds. But the term includes also the winged insects,
as is evident from Leviticus xi. 20, "All fowls (haoph) that creep, go
ing upon four." The proper translation of the term is not fowl, but
flying thing, including the tribes of all kinds that can raise themselves
up into the air; as is indeed rendered obvious by the expression in
the 21st verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis itself (cal oph canaph),
"every flying thing that hath wings."
In the 21st verse it is said, "God created (hathananim hagedolim),"
which Hebrew words, our translators, following the Septuagint, (which
has given for them ra Krtrri ra fisyaXa,) have rendered great whales.
We have abundant resources to shew that this translation is erroneous.
In fact, neither the Greek nor the English translators have been con
sistent with themselves in translating the Hebrew word (than) or
(thanim), for it occurs in both these forms. We find them in other
places translating it severally by the term ipaxuv, and dragon. It
would be tedious to quote the passages where they have thus varied
from themselves. We shall refer to Ezekiel xxix. 3, for the latter
sense, "I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon
(hathanim hagadol) that lieth in the midst of his rivers," where the
Septuagint has Tttv ipaxovrc. rov i^syav. The figure in this passage is
evidently borrowed from the crocodile of the Nile, and this circum-

62 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
stance of itself would shew that dragon, in place of whale, would be
a better translation in Genesis. But (thanin) has a still more compre
hensive meaning. We find two words formed from it, one of which
(Leviathan) is the specific name of the crocodile, as is obvious from
the descriptions of Job chap. xli. and of Isaiah chap, xxvii. 1, in which
last passage (thanin) is also used, — and the other (Pethan) is the spe
cific name of some serpent, as is obvious from the reference to its
poison, in Job xx. 14, and Deuteronomy xxxii. 33. In this last pas
sage we also find poison ascribed to the thanin ; " Their wine is the
poison of dragons (thaninira), and the cruel venora of asps (pethanim);"
so that here it is evidently meant to express a serpent, as in Ezekiel
and Isaiah, as we have seen above, it signifies one of the lacertine
species. These references, which we could have greatly extended, were it
necessary, are sufficient to prove that (than) or (thanin) was a sort of
generic, or rather classical, name, to designate the serpent and lizard
tribes ; and that instead of great whales in the 21st verse, the trans
lators should have given the words great reptiles.*
The result of our criticism is, that the work of the fifth epoch, as
described in Genesis, was the creation of the inhabitants of the waters;
of the birds, winged insects, and reptiles ; in fact, of the oviparous
races named in detail, with some omissions which are to be accounted
for by the uniformly condensed and brief form of the whole narration.
We proceed to the work of the sixth epoch, which concluded with
the creation of man.
In the English translation we find creeping things again included
among the beings which were created during this period, and these
English terms, in their most comraonly received acceptation, imply
some of the insect or reptile tribes. We have seen that the Septua
gint countenances the interpretation creeping things;^ but the Hebrew
term (remes) does not. This is derived from a verb which signifies
to move, and which is so far from being limited in its application to
the insects or the reptiles, that, in Psalm civ. 20, 21, we find it applied
to the beast of the forest and the young lions : " Thou makest dark
ness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep (tire-

* There is only one passage in which (than) means, with certainty, anything
else than a serpent or reptile, which is Lamentations iv. 3, where probably a seal
is meant ; but the passage is highly poetical, and no authority can be given to it to
supersede the uniform meaning of the term in all the earlier writers, which we
have established in the text. .

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 63
mos). The young lions roar after their prey." In the 24th and 25th
verses, (remes) is grouped with cattle (behemach), and beast of the
earth (haith haaretz). Proofs are abundant, and too tedious to be all
referred to, that by (behemah) the Hebrews generally expressed the
larger herbivorous animals, and by (haith haaretz) the larger beasts of
prey. (For the former see Genesis xxxiv. 23, and for the latter Le
viticus xxvi. 22.) Thus we find races of mammalia expressed by
these terms, and to comprehend the whole class we must understand
(remes) as referring to its other tribes. It is at least no race of insects
that can be meant by the term, for, in point of fact, where any of these
are obviously meant in other Hebrew passages, either the name (she
retz) is given to them, as in Leviticus xi. 42, " Whatsoever doth mul
tiply feet among all creeping things," (hasheretz), or the name (oph),
as we have already seen.
It is true that remes is applied to the oviparous tribes, but not as a
noun or name, but as a verb to express their motion, just as in some
pa.ssages above quoted, we have seen sheretz applied as a verb, but
not a name to mammalia.
Previously to setting down the following table of coincidences be
tween the first chapter of Genesis and the results of geological obser
vation, it is necessary to make a remark on one passage in Hum
boldt's table of geological formations, which possesses a classical ce
lebrity over Europe. In that table, following an earlier authority, he
has placed the formations of transition, in the limestones of which
are found several species of shells, intermediately between the primi
tive formations and those containing bituminous coal ; and his table
would thus indicate that an animal creation had preceded any vege
table one. We shall not need to discuss the question, whether the
formations, named transition, are considered in a right point of view,
when they are placed between the primitive and pit-coal strata, since
it is sufficient for our present purpose to remark, that several obser
vations, among which we may particularly refer to those of Thomas
Weaver, Esq. F. R. S., on the geological relations of the south of Ire
land, have proved that the anthracite or glance coal of the transition
formations, with some of its accompanying strata, are full of impress
ions of various plants;* so that in the transition strata a vegetable
creation is discovered as well as an animal.
In the following table we have taken the geological facts from va
rious authorities. The passages quoted, are selected chiefly on ac
count of their brevity. In the quotation from, and reference to Genesis,
the events on which geology can throw no certain light are in italics,
* This is true, on avast scale and in innumerable instances, in the anthracite
mines of Pennsylvania ; not to mention that most geologists now include tbe bitii-
minous coal iu the transition class.— Ed.

64

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.

Table of Coincidences between the Order of Events as described in Genesis, and
that unfolded by Geological Investigation.

In Genesis.

^

Discovered bytSeology.

Gen, 1. 1, 3, In the begin
ning God created the heav
ens and the earth. And the
earth was without form and
void ; and darkness was up
on the face of the deep; and
the Spirit of God moved up
on the face of the waters.
3, 4, 5. Creation of light.
6, 7, 8. Creation of the ex
pansion or atmosphere.
9, 10. Appearance of the
dry land.

1
2

It is impossible to deny, that the waters of the
sea have formerly, and for a long time, covered
those masses of matter which now constitute our
highest mountains; and,
further, that these waters, during a long time, did
not support any living hoiies.— Cuvier' s Theory
of the Earth, sect. 7.

11, 13, 13. Creation of
shooting plants, and of seed-
bearing herbs and trees.

3

1. Cryptogamous plants in the coal strata.— iVfo-
nif observers.
'2. Species of the most perfect developed class,
the Dicotyledonous, already appear in the period
of the secondary formations, and the first traces of
them can be shown in the oldest strata of the sec
ondary formation ; while they uninterruptedly in
crease in the successive formations. — Prof. Jame
son's remarls on the Ancient Flora of the Earth.

14 to 19. Sun, moon and
stars made to be for signs,
and for seasons, and for
days, and for years.

20. Creation of the inhab
itants of the waters.

4

Shells in Alpine and Jura limestone. — Hum
boldt's tabic:::.
Pish in Jura limstone, — Do.
Teeth and scales offish in Tilgate sandstone.—
Mr. Mantell.

Creation of flying things.

5

Bones of birds in Tilgate sandstone. — Mr. Man
tell, Geological Transactions, 1826.
Elytra* of winged insects in calcareous slate, at
Stonesfield. — Mr. Mantell.

21. The creation of great
reptiles.

6

It will be impossible not to acknowledge as a
certain truth, the number, the largeness, and the
variety of the reptiles, which inhabited the seas or
the land at the epoch in which the strata of Jura
were deposited, — Cuvier's Ossem. Foss.
There was a period when the earth was peopled
by oviparous quadrupeds of the most appalling
magnitude. Reptiles were the lords of Creation. —
Mr. Mantell.

24, 25. Creation of the
mammalia.

7

Bones of mammiferous land quadrupeds, found
only when we come up to the formations above the
coarse limestone, which is above the chalk,t — Cu
rler's Theory, sect. 20.

26, 27. Creation of man.

8

No human remains among extraneous fossils. —
Cuvier's Theory, sect. 32.
But found covered with mud in caves of Bize, —
Journal.

Genesis, VII. The flood
of Noah, 4200 years ago.

9

The crust of the globe has been subjected to a
great and sudden revolution, which cannot be da
ted much farther back than five or six thousand
years ago. — Cuvier's Theory, 32, 33, 34, 35, and
Bucldand's Reliq. Diluv.

* Sheaths.
1 One solitary exception is since discovered, in the calcareous slate of Stonesfield, in the bones
of a didelphie, an opossum, a tribe whose position may be held intermediate between the ovipa
rous and mammiferous races.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 65
In the above table, we have not taken advantage of the distinction
which we conceive, we have gone far to prove, is expressed in the
Hebrew text between the cryptogamous and the other classes of plants
but have set down the whole vegetable kingdom as forming only one
element in the table. We shall also allow that the 4th, 5th, and 6th
Nos. may be liable to be interchanged among themselves, in respect
of place and shall hinge no argument upon them, farther than what
arises from the circumstance that they are all placed in one group.
Yet, after these abatements from the number of particulars, the coin
cidences here shown between the order of the epochs of creation as
signed in Genesis, and that discovered by geology, are calculated to
excite the deepest attention. Human science, in the probabilty of
chances, as illustrated by La Place, has put us in possession of an
, instrument for estimating their value; and we feel amply entitled to
take advantage of it for that purpose, for no case could well be point
ed out, where it would be more correctly applicable than in this,
where the coincidences assume a definitely successive numerical form.
We are entitled to adopt even the very language of La Place, and to
say, " By subjecting the probability of these coincidences to compu
tation, it is found that there is more than sixty thousand to one
against the hypothesis that they are the effect of chance.*
It is thus, then, that the discoveries of geology, when more ma
tured, instead of throwing suspicion on the truths of revelation, as the
first steps in them led some persons to maintain, have furnished the
most overpowering evidence in behalf of one branch of these truths.
The result of these discoveries has been, in this respect, similar to
those of the Chinese and Egyptian histories, and the Indian astrono
my, but much more striking. Eminent men had pledged their fame
in setting up these histories, and that astronomy, in opposition to the
chronology of Genesis ; but further and more careful inquiry into
their true characters, discovered that, when rightly understood, they
only tend to confirm it.
We are not afraid that we shall have here quoted against us the
words of Bacon, " Tanto magis haec vanitas inhibenda venit, et coer-
cenda, quia ex divinorum et humanorum, male sana admixtione, non
solum educitur, philosophia phantastica, sed etiam religio haaretica."
We have only endeavored to illustrate and point out the consequen-
quences of the statement of Baron Cuvier, " that the order which the
cosmogony of Moses assigns to the different epochs of creation, is

* Syst. du Monde, book v. chap. 5,

66 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
precisely the same as that which has been deduced from geological
considerations." We have been guilty of no improper mixing up of
divine and human things. We have examined the meaning of the
terms in the first chapter of Genesis, in consistency with the acknowl
edged rules of criticism, and only by the light contained within itself,
or that thrown upon it by the other books, in the same language with
which it is associated. The human science we have not extracted
from any part of the Holy Scriptures ; we have taken it simply as
we find it in the works of eminent geologists. As the latter is not a
philosophia phantastica, but a deeply interesting science, constructed
by that method of careful observation and cautious induction, which
Bacon was himself the first to reccommend ; so neither can the sense
of the Scriptures present to us a religio hteretica. If our science,
thus constructed, and our religion speak so obviously the same lan
guage, as we see they do on one important point, what else in the
strictest application of Bacon's philosophy, can we deduce from the
circumstance, but that both are certainly true ? '
It does not come under our present subject to discuss the historical
and moral evidences of the divine revelation of the Scriptures ; but
both are so full, even to overflowing, and impose upon us so many
insuperable difficidties, in the way of our being able to account for
the quality and consistency of these remarkable books, excepting on
the ground which has been all along assumed by themselves, that they
are of more than human origin, that in estimating the accuracy of
any part of the matters contained in them, the fastidiousness of hu
man science appears to be carried to an unreasonable extent, not to
take these evidences into calculation. In this country, where for a
long period, we have had the scriptures in our hands as a popular
book, they among us who have been the most eminent for human
learning and science, and whose fame has been in every view the most
unsullied, have been so convinced by the force of these evidences,
that they have in general been the most strenuous defenders of reve
lation. Will not human science, then, condescend to borrow some light to
direct the steps of its own inquiries, from a record, the accuracy of
which it has itself proved, and which is supported by other proofs of
the highest order? Or,* what should we say to the illustrator of the
relics of Pompeii and Herculaneum, who should reject the light
* The other part of this argument, we attempted to illustrate, in the first pages-
of the present discussion. — Ed.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 67
thrown on them by the letters of Pliny, authenticated as these are
by the existing remains of the buried cities, as well as the historical
evidence which is proper to themselves ?
Among the questions which geology is at present attempting to
solve, is that of a diflerent temperature of some regions of the earth
at a remote age. The discoveries of Pallas and Adams, of a rhi
noceros and elephant in Siberia, having coverings of hair fit to pro
tect them from the cold of the northern regions, would seem to de
cide the question, so far at least to show, that there has been no
change of temperature since the creation. of animals. But the ques
tion does not seem yet so satisfactorily answered, so far back as to the
age o{ the creation of vegetables. Does not the statement of Gene
sis, that the establishraent of our present days and seasons was inter
mediate between the creation of vegetables and that of animals, give
us a clew to direct our path in the inquiry ?"*
Having finished this long, but very important and apposite quota
tion from Prof. Jameson, we proceed to remark that we are aware,
from much communication on this subject with eminent biblical crit
ics and divines, how tenacious they are, of the common acceptation
of the word day. On points of biblical criticism we have no right to
speak with great confidence. But we may be permitted to remark,
that from the best consideration we have been able to give the subject,
aided by the light, afforded both by criticism and geology, it does not
appear necessary to limit the word day in this account, to the period
of twenty four hours.
1. This word could have had no definite application, before the pre
sent raeasure of a day and night was established by the instituted re
volution of the earth on its axis, before an illuminated sun, and this
did not happen until the fourth day.
2. The word day, is used even in this short history, in three senses,
— for light as distinct from darkness, — for the light and darkness of a
single terrestrial revolution, or a natural day ; and finally for time at
large. 3. In the latter case then, the account itself uses the word day in
the sense in which geology would choose to adopt it, that is, for time
or a period of time.

» On submitting the criticisms of Professor Jameson to an eminent Hebrew
scholar, no fault was found with them, although the inferences with respect to ge
ology, were not admitted. — Ed.

68 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
In the recapitulatory view of the creation in the beginning of the
2d chapter of Genesis, — allusion is. made to the whole work in the
expression " in the day that the Lord God made the heavens and the
earth." 4. If the Canons of criticism require that one sense of the word day
should be adopted and preserved throughout the whole account, how
are we to understand this verse? " These are the generations of the
heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the
Lord God made the heavens and the earth." Which of the three
senses shall we adopt ? If the last, then the whole work was perform
ed not in six days, but in one day — of twenty four hours, in the pop
ular sense ; — in a sufficient period of tirae, according to the geolog
ical view. The canons of criticism were made by man and may be
erroneous, or at least, they may be erroneously applied ; the world
was made by God, and if the history in question were dictated by
him, it cannot be inconsistent with the facts.* Why then, should we
not prefer that sense of the word used in the history itself, which is
in harmony with the structure of the globe. It is said indeed, that
the account in the 2d chapter of Genesis is a different one from that
in the first. With this the geologist can have no concern ; since he
finds both adopted in a connected history, he receives them as one.
It is agreed on all hands, that the word here used for day, is that
which in the Hebrew, usually signified a period of 24 hours and the
addition of morning and evening is supposed to render it certain that
this is the real sense and the only sense that is admissible, especially
as this view is supported by the peculiar genius of the Hebrew lan
guage. But, we would ask, is it unusual to preserve this allusion to morn
ing and evening, when the word day is used for time ; we speak for
instance of the life of a man as his day, and in the same sense and in
harmony with this rhetorical figure, we speak of the morning and the
evening of life.

* No opinion can be heretical but that which is not true. Truths can never
war against each other. I affirm, therefore, that we have nothing to fear from the
result of our inquiries, provided they be followed in the laborious but secure road
of honest induction. In this way, we may rest assured, we shall never arrive at
conclusions opposed to any truth, either physical or moral, from whatsoever source
that truth may be derived; nay, rather that new discoveries will ever lend support
and illustration to things which are already known, by giving us a larger insight
into the universal harmonies of Nature. — Professor Sedgwick's Addresstothe Geo
logical Society, February 19, 1830.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 69
In all ages, countries and languages, this use of the word day is
fully sanctioned, and it is frequently used in the scriptures in the
same sense.* Indeed, it might not be too much to suppose that the
arrangement by which the sun was to measure time was not comple
ted until the evening of the 4th day, and then our difficulties will be
confined to one day, namely, the 5th. Tho first three days, obvious
ly, could not have had the present measure of tirae applied to them ;
and the work of arranging the crust of the planet was so far finished,
by the evening of the 5th day, as to fit it for the reception of terres
trial quadrupeds, which first appeared on the 6th day, and finally,
man was created, as would appear, at the conclusion of the same dayj
of course, the great geological revolutions, beneath the bed of the an
cient ocean, must have been so far finished that the continents had
emerged, and thus dry land was provided, both for terrestrial quadru
peds and for raan, neither of which could, before this period, have
existed on the earth.
In the usual mode of understanding the account, all the immense
deposits of coal, and of vegetable and aquatic animal remains, with
their vast strata and mountains, must have been made within 72 hours,
for there was no dry land until the third day, and consequently np
vegetables ; they appeared on that day, aquatic animals on the 5th,
and land animals, with man, on the 6th ; but the latter could not, as
observed above, have appeared until the continents had emerged, and
consequently marine formations had, in a great measure, ceased, ex-

* lyiike xvii. 24. — So also shall the son of man be in his day.
John viii. 56. — Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it
and was glad. ^
2. Peter iii. 8. — One day is with the Lord a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day.
Genesis ii. 4. — These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when
they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
Job xiv. 6, — Turn from him that he may rest till he shall accomplish as an hire
ling his day.
JoS xviii, 20. — They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they
that went before were affrighted, (speaking of the life of the wicked,)
Ezekiel xxi. 25, — And thou profane wicked princie of Israel, whose day is
come when iniquity shall have an end.
Proverbs vi. 34. — For jealousy is the rage of a man ; therefore he will not spare
in the day of vengeance.
" When day is used in the plural number, it often signifies a year. It is thus
used in Leviticus xxv. 29. — If a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then
he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold." — Higgins' Mosaical and
Mineral Geologies, p. 161.

70 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
cept such as may have been going on ever since. According to the
popular understanding, the transition and secondary mountains with
their coal beds, plants and animals were therefore, formed, in two
or three natural days, by physical laws, which is incredible, because
it is impossible.
We cannot conceive therefore, that even the limitation of morn
ing and evening is decisive against the extension which we would
claim, and we are left at liberty to interpret the word day in harmony
with the facts of geology.
It is granted that Moses himself might have understood the word day
according to the popular signification and that this sense would be the
most obvious one to every mind not informed as to the structure of
the globe ; even those who are learned on other subjects, but ignorant
of geology, always adopt, in this case, the literal and obvious meaning.
This hovvever proves nothing ; for the truths of astronomy, are in ex
actly the same situation. Until the modern astronoray arose, no one
whether learned or unlearned, entertained a doubt that the earth is
an extended plain ; that it stands on a firm foundation, even On pillars,
and that the sun and starry heavens and the azure canopy revolve
around it as a centre.
Such is still the impression of barbarous nations, but few even of
the common people of enlightened countries would now fall into so
gross an error; and no one in this age fears that he shall, like Galileo,
be thrown into prison for declining (on this subject) to understand the
scriptures in their literal sense.*
It is objected that as the sabbath is a common day and that as it is
mentioned in the fourth commandment, and in other parts of the
scriptures, in connexion with the other six days, they ought to be
limited to the same time.

» When the present system of astronomy was introduced, it met with the most
violent opposition and the following is the " Jddgment pronounced at Rome, in
1622, only two hundred and eleven years ago, on the Philosophy of Galileo, and
on the Philosopher himself, by the seven Cardinal Inquisitors." " To aflirm that
the sun is in the centre, absolutely immoveable, and without locomotion, is an
absurd proposition, false in sound philosophy, and moreover heretical, because it
is expressly contrary to Holy Scripture. To say that the earth is not placed in
the middle of the world, nor immoveable, is also a proposition absurd and false
in sound philosophy ; and considered theologically, is at least erroneous with res
pect to faith." " Whereupon Galileo so refuted, was compelled on his knees to
abjure, curse and detest, the absurdities, errors and heresies, which the sagacity of
the Cardinal Reviewers and Inquisitors had discovered in his writings." — Penn's
Compar. Estimate, i^-c. 2d. Ed. Vol. I. p. 37.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 71
We cannot see that this consequence follows. The sabbath is a
moral enactment; all that precedes was phy.sical, relating merely to the
creation and arrangement of matter, and to irrational organized beings;
the sabbath could have no relation to rocks and waters : it was ordained
for man, as a rational being, and in mercy as a day of rest to the animal
races that were to labor for hira : it was a new dispensation and although
the same word is applied both to this period and to those that prece
ded, it does not appear to follow that they are necessarily of the same
length. The first three days that preceded the establishraent of the
relation between the sun and the earth could have no raeasure of time
in common w,ith our present experience, and it appears to be no un
warrantable liberty to suppose that they may have been of any length
which the subject matter raay require, although those three days
were also verbally limited by morning and evening, and that at a peri
od of the creation when there could have been no morning and eve
ning, in the sense in which those words are now used.
The revolution of the earth on its axis in presence of an illumina
ted sun, was necessary to constitute morning and evening, and it must
revolve with the same degree of rapidity as now, in order to have con
stituted such a natural day, with its morning and evening as we at pre
sent enjoy. But the sun was not ordained to rule the day until the
fourth of those periods, and it is not certain that the early revolutions
of the earth on its axis were as rapid as now. May we not there
fore suppose that the historian, as he must employ some term for his
divisions of time, adopted one that he found in familiar use, but that
it is not necessarily restricted to the common acceptation of the word.
Is it asked whether Moses had any mental reservation, a double sense
for the word day — one for the common people and one for geologists ;
we answer that it is very possible he had no geological knowledge be
yond the order of time in the creation which his history exhibits. It is
very probable that fossil and entombed organized remains and fragmen
tary rocks and indeed most of the facts which geology has developed
were unknown to him and that, as he told a story for mankind at large,
he told it in the same spirit and with the same understanding with which
it is commonly received. This however decides nothing more than in
the case of all the sacred writers who relate astronomical events, or
who allude to astronomical appearances in the vulgar sense, which is
in direct contradiction to the actual state of facts in astronomy; where
as geology contradicts nothing contained in the scripture account of
the creation; on the contrary, it confirms the order of time and re-
quires only that the time should be sufficiently extended to render it
10

72 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
physically possible — vvithout calhng in the aid of miracles in a case
where natural successions are sufficient to account for the facts.
4. It has been supposed ihat the succession of geological events
may have happened in the first ages of the world, after the creation
of man.
This supposition is wholly irreconcilable with facts. The great se
ries of geological events was inconsistent with the existence of man
upon the earth : they precluded even the existence of terrestrial quad
rupeds, which both geology and the scripture history assign to a late
period in the order of things, the same period in the close of which
man hiraself first appears ; they were, until the period immediately
preceding, incompatible v ith the existence of any beings that re
quired more land than amphibious reptiles; and the vast deposits of
fossilized and of crystallized rocks that preceded the period of rep
tiles, demanded an alternate and concomitant prevalence of water on
the surface, and of fire beneath, which were entirely hostile to the
quiet and firm state of the surface, such as we see it now. Beyond
the effects of just such agents as are now in operation, water, tem
perature, storms, volcanos, earthquakes, &c. we have no reason to
suppose that the earth has undergone any very important changes,
affecting the integrity of its entire crust, since man appeared in the
world. 5. It has been supposed that a general deluge will account for all
the geological events that have been described.
This view is entirely inadmissible, except as to those superficial
ruins which have been already spoken of as diluvial. In geology,
without reference to sacred history, a deluge is a sudden rise and
overflow of water. It has no exact limit in time, altitude or violence.
The facts revealed by geology demand many partial deluges, and
they are admitted by all geologists, tvith greater or less extent, to
account for the transport and deposition of those things which water
alone could convey ; it is necessary also to suppoise, that both fresh
and salt water, either by rise of water, or subsidence of land, alter
nately prevailed and retired after continuing an indefinite period ;
sufficiently long, however, to give time for the various animals and
plants to be deposited and entombed, which we find in successive
strata, now marine or littoral, or pelagian, now of fresh water, fluvia
tile, or lacustrine. The rise and subsidence of the land, by subter
ranean eflbrts and collapses, arising from igneous action, was the
probable cause of these alternate movements.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 73
Our concern, however, in this discussion, is with the general deluge,
described in the book of Genesis, for, we arc writing for the sake of
those who believe in the genuineness and authenticity of that history.
From many things that have been already said, it is obvious that the
amazing geological depositions of the earth cannot be ascribed to that
short, violent and transient catastrophe. Its genuine effects are ex
actly those which all geologists ascribe to diluvial action ; namely, the
transportation of the loose ruins of mineral masses, and of the or
ganic world, which are found strewed every where over the surfi(ce
of the earth.
Professor Buckland, in his Reliqui2e Diluvianae, has most ably illus
trated this subject ; and it is obvious, that the former practice, of at
tributing the organized remains found in the solid strata, to this catas
trophe, is founded entirely in an imperfect acquaintance with the sub
ject, and that no man, at the present poriod, who had studied geology
thoroughly, would fall into such an error.
It is not supposable, however, that all deposits of gravel, &c. are
attributable to a general deluge, and it may be difficult to draw the
line between a local and a general flood. It is not important to dis
cuss that topic, nor the objections of those who reject the Mosaic ac
count of a general deluge. To them it is sufficient to say, that as the
earth bears every where marks of diluvial action, and is strewed with
diluvial ruins, every observer will for hiraself assign to local deluges,
or to a general debacle, as great a portion of the effects as may in
his view be proper.
To those who would assign to the agency of a general deluge, the
vast work of depositing the immense solid geological formations, with
all their varied stores of animals, and plants, and fragments, and di
versified successions, we can say only, that such effects, from such a
cause, are physically impossible, especially within the limits of time
and under the circumstances assigned in the Mosaic account. It is
not necessary to go again into the induction of particulars.
As to the loose materials, their actual disposition and arrangement,
as we now see them, is to be attributed, chiefly, to a diluvial ocean —
no other cause being capable of reaching the regions remote from, and
elevated above the present great waters of the globe.
The arrangement of the loose materials, on shores and in outlets,
and in regions occasionally flooded, is, at least to some depth, and to
some extent, to be referred to agencies now in operation.
It is also true, that water-worn pebbles are produced at the present
time. No one who, on the sea shore, has observed the incessant lash-

74 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
ing of the waves, and has listened to the hollow hum of the stones
and pebbles rubbing against each other, with ceaseless friction, can
doubt, that rounded, water-worn pebbles are now every moment form
ing ; and were they found no where else, except on the shores, and in
moving waters, there would generally be no difficulty in assigning their
origin to this cause. But rounded stones, water-worn pebbles, and
bowlders, are found in every country, oh the surface and in the soil,
and in regions the most remote from the ocean. This of course proves
the universal prevalence, sooner or later, at once or successively, of
diluvial waters.
- ' Why not attribute the rounding, as well as the position of the inland
water-worn stones to the diluvial ocean ? The answer which must be
returned, is, that the tirae allotted by the deluge described in Genesis
is too short for the process of grinding down hard stones, which would
occupy a very long period. A general deluge could transport immense
masses of these ruins, and deposit them where, to a great extent, we
now find thera ; but it was not possible that it could, in so limited a
period, have effected much, in grinding down the angular fragments
of quartz* and of other hard stones, into ovoidal and globular pebbles,
and bowlders. That effect appears to have been, priticipally, the work
of the earlier oceans.
The form of the loose materials, that cover the rocks, more or
less, in every country, is attributable chiefly to the wearing effects
of agents, operating, in all time, to produce disintegration and de
composition ; their present position may be fairly attributed to dilu
vial agency.
An ingenious author, Mr. Penn, convinced that the deluge could not
account for the geological successions, has supposed thera to be form
ed in the ocean, between the creation of man and the deluge, at which
time the then existing continents were, as he thinks, sunk, and the bed
of the ocean raised, to form our present continents, bringing up, of
course, all the marine deposits of sixteen centuries.
It is not necessary to discuss this theory. It is disproved by the
discovery in caverns, and in the loose wreck, on the surface of the
ground, of immense deposits of the bones of terrestrial animals, which
have not existed in those countries within the limits of human knowl
edge, and many of which could not live in the present climates of
those countries ; for instance, the tropical animals, elephants, tigers,
* Topaz pebbles are found on the shores of New Holland : we have one which
i? perfectly ovoidal.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 75
hyenas, hippopotami, rhinoceros, &c. are found now abundantly
in the diluvium of England, and consequently England was dry
land before the deluge that buried these remains, and therefore the
existing continents have not been raised from the ocean since the
creation of terrestrial quadrupeds, unless they were submersed after
that epoch and then raised again, of which there is no proof. The
coal beds also present indubitable proofs of having been formed from
terrestrial vegetables, and therefore they were not submarine, although
the occasional occurrence of a few marine shells or plants raay prove
that some of them were formed in islands Or estuaries, where the sea
had occasional access.
The result of all our enquiries, then, is this.
We find that the geological formations are in accordance with the
Mosaic account of the creation ; but more tirae is required for the ne
cessary events of the creation than is consistent with the common un
derstanding of the days. The history is therefore true, but it must be
understood so as to be consistent with itself and with the facts.
It is agreed on all hands, that there may be time enough for the
primitive rocks before the first day, and if the days be regarded as
periods of time, so as to allow roora for the events assigned to them,
relating to organic beings, and to the masses in which they are en
tombed, all difficulty is removed.
On the contrary, if they are restricted to the usual popular sense,
it is not physically possible that the events should have happened
within the time assigned ; but they did happen, and as there was no
call for miracles in cases where natural operations alone were suffi
cient, there can be no doubt that sufficient tirae was allowed.
It is scarcely necessarj' to remark, that after the order and arrange
ment of the creation were fuHy established, and man appeared on the
earth, the measures of time were, without doubt, the same as now, and
therefore we are not at liberty, as there is clearly no occasion, to re
gard them in any other than the usually accepted sense.
It is no valid objection to the supposition of more time than is com
monly allotted to the week of the creation, that there were no human
beings to be spectators of the work. Even upon the popular view,
they were excluded, because the human race did not appear until the
very last act of the creation. Had they, however, been co-existent,
they would scarcely have understood what was passing, as most of the
geological facts were veiled by the ocean. But there were not want
ing spectators ; God, and angelic beings, far superior in intelligence

76 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
and dignity to man, looked on, and in the beautiful and highly figura
tive language of the history — "the morning stars sang together, and
all the sons of God shouted for joy."
Before closing these remarks, we will respectfully submit a few sug
gestions for the consideration of two very different descriptions of per
sons, namely, those who deny, and those who defend, the truth of the
Mosaic history.
To the former class, so far as they are geologists, we will say, that,
in relation to geology, any attempt to disprove the truth or genuine
ness of the pentateuch, and of Genesis in particular, is wholly super
fluous, and quite aside from any question that can, in this age, be at
issue between geologists. No geologist, at the present day, erects any
system upon the basis of the scripture history, or of any other history.
Still, historical coincidences with natural phenomena have always
been regarded as interesting, because they are mutually adjuvant and
confirmatory. The letter of Pliny, describing the death of his uncle,
would have been true, although Herculaneum and Pompeii had never
been discovered; and it would have been true that those towns were
overwhelmed by a volcanic eruption, although the letter of Pliny had
never been written ; or being written, if it had been false as to the
main fact of the death of the elder Pliny, or of there having been an
eruption at the time assigned in that writing. But the existence of
the letter, and its coincidence with the facts revealed by the discov
ery of the buried cities, flash conviction upon every mind, and afford
«ome of those firm points of reliance upon which our confidence re
poses with delight. Now if there is not sufficient proof in the appear
ance of the earth, that it was for a long time covered by water, and
that the waters deposited, in the then forming strata and mountains,
those organic bodies, of aquatic origin, which we find entombed in
them, then no geologist of the present day would, on the authority of
the first chapter of Genesis alone, assume the fact of terrene submer
sion, as the basis of his reasoning and as the foundation of a geolo
gical system.
In the same manner, if he find on the face of the earth no proofs
of diluvial devastation ; if there be nothing to evince, that mighty
rushing waters have torn up and transported to a distance the move
able materials of the surface ; then, as a geologist, he will never as
sume the Mosaic account of the deluge as the basis of a system of dilu
vial agency, any more than he will build similar conclusions upon the
poetry, fables and mythology, or even upon the history, of the ancients.

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 77
But if he discover proofs, and those too, generally admitted by well
instructed geologists, of both the stupendous events named above, or
of a succession and diversity of such events, sufficient, on the whole,
to mark the entire earth, by their appropriate effects; if then he finds
a history of high antiquity, and generally revered wherever it is known,
describing such a state of things as the condition of the planet reveals,
what rule of science or of philosophy can debar him from bringing
the two into comparison, for mutual illustration, as is always done in
the case of other antiquities. Why should any one object to his apply
ing the terms of the history, as he understands them, and then meas
uring the phenomena by them, and them by the phenomena. If they
agree, surely, it is reasonable that conviction should receive augment
ed strength in his mind. Should they, however, disagree, the phe
nomena, if correctly observed and correctly reported, will still be true,
and the credit of the history will, of course, be impaired. Should,
moreover, the genuineness or authenticity of the history be disproved,
from other sources than the phenomena, the latter will still remain in
all the obstinacy of fact, which history may indeed illustrate, but can
not, on the contrary, disprove. If the history, on the other hand, be
confirmed by the natural phenomenS, it has then received the greatest
confirm.ation possible, and may well exult in so powerful an ally.
Should it, in the case of the pentateuch, be proved even, that there
was never any such person as Moses, or that the books that pass
under his 'name were written by others, or that they are compila
tions of ancient and vague traditions, or even of reputed or real fables,
this would not, in the least, affect the system of geological truth that
has been erected by an ample course of investigation and induction.
But, as long as the Mosaic history is admitted to be both genuine and
true, any geologist who receives the history in that character, may,
with strict historical and philosophical propriety, illustrate the history
by geology, and compare geology with the history.
This he will do merely on the ground of historical and geological
coincidence, and without drawing for the support of his scientific
views upon any portion of his moral feeling, towards a work which,
as an individual, he may revere as a communication from his Maker
for purposes far more important than the establishment of physical
truth. To personal imputations on his motives, his science or his skill, or on
those ofeminent philosophers with whom he has the honor to think and
to act, while he leaves the case, with the grand inquest of the learned,
the candid and the wise, he will reply in no other manner than by ex-

78 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY.
pressing the hope that powerful and cultivated, but unbelieving minds,
may be influenced to see the harmony of all truth, whether histori
cal, moral or physical, and to remember that man is, after all his ac
quirements in knowledge, a being, so darkly wise and rudely great, that
he is constantly in danger of deviating into error, especially on subjects
that have a moral, as well as a physical bearing. While, therefore,
in geology, as well as in other sciences, we fully approve, and hum
bly follow the course of rigid induction — (the only safe and truly phi
losophical process of investigation, and basis of physical truth,) we
hold it to be entirely proper in a scientific view, to avail ourselves of
every apposite historical fact, from whatever credible source it may
be derived. Indeed, no geologist hesitates to cite history, travels,
personal narrative, and even poetry and tradition, in confirmation or
illustration of earthquakes, floods, or volcanic eruptions ; of the ri
sing or sinking of islands ; of alluvial increase or destruction ; of rup
tures of the barriers of lakes, irruptions of the sea — or whatever other
fact may be the subject of his investigation. Why then should the
scripture history form the only exception among historical author
ities !
Having made these suggestions to those geologists who are not
believers in divine revelation, we will now add a few remarks to be
lievers who are not geologists.
The subject before us is not one which can be advantageously dis
cussed with the people at large. A wide range of facts, and an exten
sive course of induction, are necessary to the satisfactory exhibition
of geological truths, aSid especially to establish their connexion and
harmony with the Mosaic history. It is a subject exclusively for the
learned, or at least for the studious and the reflecting ; but it can no
longer be neglected with safety, by those whose province it is to il-
"lustrate and defend the sacred writings. The crude, vague, unskilful,
and unlearned manner, in which it has been too often treated, when
treated at all, by those who are, to a great extent, ignorant of the
structure of the globe, or who have never studied it with any efficient
attention, can communicate only pain to those friends of the bible,
who are perfectly satisfied, after full examination, that the relation of
geology to sacred history, is now as little understood by many theo
logians, and biblical critics, as astronomy was in the time of Galileo.
There is but one remedy ; theologians must study geology, or if
they will not, or from peculiar circumstances, cannot do it, they must
be satisfied to receive its demonstrated truths from those who have

CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 79
learned them in the most effectual way, not only in the cabinet, but
abroad on the face of nature, and in her deep recesses. They will
then be convinced that geology is not an enemy, but an ally of reveal
ed rehgion ; that the subject is not to be mastered by mere criticism ;
that criticism must be applied to facts, as well as to words, and that
there is, at most, only an apparent incongruity — an incongruity which
vanishes before investigation.
The mode in which the subject is now treated, or neglected, by
many theologians and critics, (not by all, for there are honorable ex
ceptions,) is not safe, as regards its bearing on the minds of youth.
If they go forth into the world in the stiffness of the letter, and
without the knowledge or proper application of the facts, it is im
possible that they should sustain themselves against those who, with
great knowledge, and no reverence, may too powerfully assail what
they cannot defend. In the pulpit, however, geology can be but
very imperfectly explained, even by him who understands it ; for it
is impossible that he should there, intelhgibly and adequately ex
hibit his proofs ; they rest on a multitude of facts unknown to a
common audience ; and they are too dependent on specimens, sec
tions and other graphical illustrations, to be understood in such
circumstances, especially by those who have enjoyed no mental prep
aration in kindred sciences, and in courses of inductive reasoning.
As the subject has no other connexion with our faith as Christians,
than so far as it affects the credibility of the early scripture history, it
is therefore wise, as to the literal sense of the days, not to disturb the
early and habitual impressions of the common people, or even of the
enlightened, who are ignorant of geology. Any discussions before
such audiences, and in such circumstances, will be misunderstood, or
not understood at all, and will only prejudice the reputation of the
speaker, without benefitting the hearer.
This, however, doe^ not excuse the theologian from being fully
prepared to meet the subject, in other places, and in situations, where
it will be forced upon his attention. It is a part of the panoply of
truth, in which he should be fully clad, although he may rarely draw
his bow, and perhaps never let fly an arrow from his appropriate
watch tower.
As the case now stands, with respect to most theologians in this
country, the geological arguments in support of the Mosaic history,
although powerful and convincing, are unknown and neglected, or
they are avoided ; and of course th'ey can be, and they actually are,
by some iew geologists, turned, with too much success, against the
11

80 OOjNSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SAci'Etl''*HISTORY.
sacred re(^fds ; it remains wfe the defenders of those records to say,
whetheij-the purloined weaponsfshall be returned to the armory where
they prci'J)er]ja|elDng, and from which they maybe again at any time
drawn forl^HJMKcient use.
Theologi^^vho were trained before geology was understood, and
before it was possible to acquire, in our seminaries, an adequate knowl
edge of its elementary truths, are not included in these remarks, and
we are happy to observe the increasing attention which is paid to the
subject by most of the students in theology who come within our
personal view.
These suggestions have been hazarded, with the sincere and earnest
hope of doing good, especially to those who greatly neglect a subject
of high interest, which it must concern them to know. But it will be
no new case, should a mediator between hostile a'rraies fail to
conciliate either party, and only pronoke the artillery of both ; nor
would it create either surprise or displeasure, should the writer
of these remarks be regarded as being too geological for the theolo
gians, as he is certainly too theological for some of the geologists.
Among the latter are, however, not a few who regard morajtruth
with quite as high interest as physical, and who are anxious to prove,
that where others discover only discord, there is a principle of harmq-_
ny, which a skilful hand may draw? forth, in tones delightful to every
discriminating ear. ' • ''

REMARK.

Supposing that there are inhabitants at the poles of the earth, how
might they understand the days of the creation ? to them a day of light
is six months long, and a night of darkness is six months long, and
the day, made up of night and day, covers a year, and it is a day too,
limited hy morning and evening.
Such persons, therefore, must suppose, upon the popular under
standing of the days of the creation, that at least six years were em
ployed on the work. So at the polar circles, there is, every year,
one day, that is one continued vision of the sun f6T"S4 hours, and one
continued night of 24 hours ; while, every where within the polar cir
cles, the days and the nights respectively are for six months,- more
than 24 , hojurs, extending even as we advance towards the poles,
through the time of many of our days and nights. How are these
people to understand the week of the creation, if limited to the popu
lar view entertained in countries between the polar circles?