the entire elephant buried in calcareous tufa at a depth of fifty feet, bears direct testimony to this fact1. And, if those formations were once fluid, all the chain of consequences here drawn out, must necessarily have followed in the course of desiccation. This is not hypothesis, but direct inference and induction from a collation of history and physics.

Thus, then, every thing concurs to testify; that the bodies of equatorial animals found in northern soils, were transported thither by the great agent which we have ascertained, namely, the REFLUXES of the diluvial ocean, during the year of its gradual departure; and thus we perceive, that the phenomenon of their presence in those soils, is amply accounted for by the Second Revolution reported in the Mosaic Record.

1 See above, p. 103.

CHAPTER VII.

THERE is a phenomenon, intimately connected with the preceding, which will demand our most particular consideration.

The Mosaical record asserts; that the catastrophe which caused the universal destruction of the brute creation, caused likewise that of the whole human race, one family alone excepted. But, if the human creation perished at the same time with the brute, we naturally expect to find human exuvia no less than brute exuvia; whereas, the mineral geology observes, "in all the exten"sive moveable soils in which we find the bones "of these large quadrupeds, and in which we

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find also bones perfectly similar to those of our horses, oxen, dogs, &c. no human bones are ever found1."- "It is certain, (says M. Cuvier,) that human bones have not been found among "fossil bones; and yet, the former are as durable "as those of the brute species, if placed in

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similar circumstances.-Every thing, therefore, "leads us to believe; that the human race did "not exist in the countries where fossil bones "have been discovered, at the epocha of the "revolution that buried the bones, although

'D'AUBUISSON, tom. ii. p. 5 14.

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they may have inhabited other countries."The place which man then occupied may have "been submerged, and his bones buried in the bottom of the present seas; all, excepting the small number of individuals that continued their species. The establishment of man in those countries in which we have stated the "fossil remains of terrestrial animals to be found, "that is, in the greater part of Europe, Asia, and America, must necessarily have been posterior, not only to the revolutions which imbedded the bones, but also, to those which have exposed "the soils enclosing them; which last revolutions, "are the last that our globe has sustained.-In closely examining all that has passed on the "surface of the globe since it was laid dry for "the last time, when the continents assumed "their actual forms; at least in those parts which "are at all elevated; we see clearly, that this "last revolution, and consequently the establishment

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of the actual societies of nations, cannot be very "ancient. This is one of the results the best proved, and the least expected, of sound geology; a result so much the more valuable, as it con"nects, by an uninterrupted chain, natural history and civil history 1.'

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This is, indeed, a most important remark of the mineral geology; but, there is yet a step or two for it to take, before it can become "sound geo

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logy." We find here, many valuable concessions to the Mosaical geology; viz. "that mankind "did not inhabit our present continents, until after "the revolution which imbedded the confused "multitude of bones found within their soils:"that they may have inhabited other continents:"that their exuvia may be buried in the bottom "of the present sea:-that the revolution which "has exposed the soils containing the fossil

bones, is the last which our globe has sus"tained :-and, that this last revolution, and "consequently the establishment of the actual "societies of nations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, cannot be very ancient."

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These are, indeed, remarkable concessions; but, we find them associated with the constant error of multiplying revolutions without any reason, which must necessarily falsify both history and chronology. This distinguished writer assumes, gratuitously, that the revolution which exposed the soils containing the fossil exuvia, was different from and posterior to that which imbedded them; and different, again, from that which gave origin to the actual societies of nations; consequently, that all the three events took place in different revolutions, and at different periods of time. Whereas we must clearly perceive, by the record, that all were effects of one and the same revolution; and, where one cause accounts simply, completely, and with high probability, for two or more effects, it is improbable to reason that they should be the

effects of different causes. The mineral geology, however, does not here draw any inference from the absence of human exuviæ, against the Mosaical declaration that both man and beast perished in the same revolution; because it perceives, that "the place which man then occupied may have been submerged, and his bones buried in the bottom of the present seas." The justness of this last inference, I shall now endeavour to render manifest.

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If we carry back our thoughts to that great period, and if we contemplate it in all its particulars, it will be evident; that there must have been an extreme difference in the condition of the two orders of beings, brute and human, under the circumstances of that tremendous and preternatural catastrophe. The brute creation, devoid of reflection and forethought, in any new and strange circumstance of nature which excites in them an indefinite sense of alarm, are prompted by their instincts merely to congregate together, and to await in trepidation the unknown evil against which their natures are unprovided with any means of preservation. These, therefore, surprised by the successive subsidences of land on the spots where they chanced to be assembled would have been taken up by the inundation in its successive progresses, would have been launched upon the surface of its waters, and would have been carried away by its refluxes. Whereas, the human population, endowed with reflection and forethought, strongly actuated by the passions of fear and of hope, and perceiving