DELUGE
739
DELUGE
lals liave nev«r been inteimpted hy a general oa- 'opbe. A careful stndy of these provinces shows
some are older than others, just as some ports of earth's sar&ce are geologically older than other a. In certain cases a province is found to contain lin itself the relic of an older province which once tpieil the same spot. In the profounder depths of maritmie lochs that indent the western coast of tland, there exist little groups of shell-fish which not noiv found alive in the shallower parts. Yet f once lived even in the shallower water, and their ains are now found fossil along the shores of the ;h of Clyde and elsewhere. They have become dually esctinct in the upper part of the sea, owing bably to a change of climate, and are now confined he very deepest zones. These and other fikcts of
same kind point to slow and gradual changes un- ken by any great cataclysmal event. Among Dts, too, similar phenomena abound. It should not Lost sight of, that, had the whole earth been covered
a year by a sheet of water, the greater part of our restrial plants must have perished. On the disap- LTance of the flood there would hence require to be new creation, or rather re-creation, all over the rid — a supposition for which there is no evidence ber in Scripture or nature, and which is opposed to that we know of the .method of the divine work- ;. Plants are grouped, like animals, in greater and «er provinces; and these, too, differ greatly from zh other in antiquity. Some assemblages of plants ve spread over wide districts, and either extirpated ose which had previously occupied the ground or iven them into sheltered comers. In Great Britain d Ireland, for instance, there are five distinct groups plants which have also corresponding suites of ani- als. The successive migrations of these groups can ill be traced, leading us to a knowledge of certain LSt changes which have taken place among the Brit- h islands within a comparatively recent geological triod. England was still united to the Continent hen the oldest group of plants began to flourish, he northern half of the island, with the whole of Scot- nd, was submerged beneath the sea, and again ele- cted before the great mass of the British plants crept estward across the plains that united the islands with le Continent. It was after the whole of our present roups of plants and animals had become fixed in their xisting haUtats that the isthmus was broken through y the waves and Britain became an island. These hanges could not have been brought about save dur- ag the lapse of a protracted series of ages. They live evidence of no sudden break, no temporary anni- iHation and subsequent creation, such as the idea of a ^eral flood would require, but, on the contrary, show rery clearly that the present races of plants and ani- nals have gone on in unbroken succession from a time hat long preceded the advent of man.
There is, however, other evidence conclusive against hib hypothesis of a universal deluge, miracle apart. '*The first effect of the covering of the whole globe srith water would be a complete change in its climate, the general tendency being to lower and equalize the temperature of all parts of its surface. Pari pasm with this process . . . would ensue the destruction of the great majority of marine animals. This would take place, partly by reason of the entire change in climatal conditions, too sudden and general to be es- caped by migration ; and, in still greater measure, in consequence of the sudden change in the depth of the water. Great multitudes of marine animals can only live between dde-marks, or at depths less than fifty fathoms; and as by the hypothesis the land had to be depressed many thousands of feet in a few months, and to be raised agahi with equal celerity, it follows that the annuals could not possibly have accommodated
^emselves to such vast and rapid changes. All the
Iitt<nal animals, therefore, would have been killed.
The race of acom^hells and periwinkles would have been exterminated, and all the coral-reefs of the Pacif- ic would at onee h^ve been converted into dead coral, never to grow again. But, so ftir is this flrom being the case, that aoom-sheUs, periwinkles, and coral still survive, and tkere is good evidence that they have continued to exist and flourish for inany thousands of years. On the other hand, Noah was not directed to take marine animals of any kind into the ark, nor, in- deed, is it easy to see how they could have been pre- served. Again, had the whole globe been submerged, the sea-water covering the land would at once have destroyed every firesh-water fish, mollusk, and worm ; and as none of these were taken into the ark, the sev- eral species would have become extinct. Nothing of the kind has occurred. Lastly, such experiments as have been made with regard to the action of sea-water upon terrestrial plants leave very little doubt that sub- mergence in sea-water for ten or eleven months would have effectually destroyed not only the great majority of the plants, but their seeds as well. And yet it is not said that Noah took any stock of plants with him into the ark, or that the animals which issued from it had the slightest difficulty in obtaining pasture. There are, then, it roust be confessed, very strong grounds for believing that no universal deluge ever occurred. Suppose the Flood, on the other hand, to have been lo- cal ; suppose, for instance, the valley of the Euphrates to have been submerged ; and then the necessity for preserving all the species of animals disappears. For, in the first place, there was nothing to prevent the birds and many of the large mammals f^om getting away ; and, in the next, the number of species peculiar to that geographical area, and which would be absolutely de- stroyed by its being flooded, supposing they could not escape, is insignificant."