zoological and botanical forms clearly determines that all these could not have coexisted in any one determinate and specific clime; and the only inference is, that they must have been brought from afar by a cause similar to that which congregated the fossil fishes. We have also adverted to facts which prove, incontestably, that "the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered." It does not affect the question, whether we believe that the Himālā, Andes, and Alps, were in such sublime relief in an antediluvian world, as they now are; the fact that organic remains are found in all of them, however highly elevated, excepting only the Primitive Class, proves the position as far as it is susceptible of proof from this class of evidence. There are many causes which will account for the superior elevation of individual mountains, and even a continuous chain of mountains. The vast power of the submarine volcano, in elevating mountains from the unfathomable depths of the ocean, presents us with sufficient evidence of an agent adequate to such great events; and it seems highly probable that volcanic energy is now far more feeble than in an early period of the world. The numerous vents by which that energy is expended by division, may be supposed sufficient to account for a diminution of power-the continued operation of volcanic action would be ever increasing the number of those vents, and in the same ratio would their subterranean energy be attenuated. Antisana, Jorullo, Cotopaxi, and Tunguragua, have doubtless added many "cubits to their stature," as well as Etna and its congeners. The denudation of valleys by the action of diluvial currents would increase the previous relief, as the boulders of granite pitched on the mountains of the Jura, and transported from their aboriginal scite and birthplace among the aiguilles of Mont Blanc, seem sufficiently to prove.

In giving full effect to the operation of volcanic action, we must not be supposed as inclined to a belief, that volcanoes afford any evidence of a central fire: On the contrary, we think their products sufficiently attest

that they are by no means so deeply seated as many believe. The seat of volcanoes may be based on the primitive rocks; but there seems to us to be no grounds whatever to suppose them below primitive rocks. We are aware that Hutton and his disciples contend for a central fire, but that is no reason why TRUTH should be sacrificed. Cordier and others have endeavoured to prove, that the temperature of the earth increases with the depth to which the miner penetrates; but even had a uniform ratio given plausibility to such an assumption, there seem to be incidental causes which would contribute their part to the increment referred to, irrespective of the circumstance that the temperature of the atmosphere would increase with the increase of density, which density would affect subterranean springs. The greatest depth, however, to which the miner has been conducted by his operations, may be considered so superficial, compared with the radius or semidiameter of the globe, that it would be utter folly to assume any datum from such premises. From some curious and interesting researches, by Mr. Robert Ware Fox, in the mines of Cornwall, we have an interesting solution of this increase of temperature altogether irrespective of volcanic action. Mr. Fox, from a belief that there existed a connexion between electric action in the interior of the earth and the arrangement of metalliferous veins; and, that on this electric action depended the progressive increase of temperature in the strata of the globe, as we descend from the surface of the earth, instituted a series of experiments to determine the question. Accordingly, considerable electrical action was discovered in the Huel Servel mine. Mr. Fox's inferences are, that the intensities of heat and electricity, and consequently of magnetism, increase in proportion to the depths of the strata under the surface of the earth. We have already stated, that we feel surprised that any one, conversant with volcanic phenomena, should claim vast and indefinite measures of time, as Mr. Poulet Scrope has done for the basaltic formations of Auvergne.

There has, however, been discovered, in one of the libraries at Rome, a letter from Sidonius Apollinaris, in the fifth century, to Mamertus, which refers to the then active volcanic action in this district.

There is a fact stated in Scripture of considerable importance when considered in this relation: "the fountains of the great deep were broken up:"-this unequivocally implies the issue of torrents from the bosom of the globe; and it seems, to us, more likely that the nucleus of the earth is an abyss of water than a lake of fire, however the latter view of it might coalesce with Buffon's notion, of which that of Hutton was a more elaborate transcript. The synchronous mention of the fountains of the great deep, along with the floodgates of heaven, is very remarkable, and seems to refer the effect to a uniform cause. The SUPREME Being, if we may be permitted to hazard an opinion, seems to have accomplished this great event, by effecting a vast change in the DENSITY of the atmosphere; to this circumstance we are inclined to refer, as a secondary agent in the fiat of deity, the rush of the waters from the recesses of the earth, "when they brake forth as if they had issued out of the womb.” This increased density, in the first creation, might be the "bars and doors" referred to in the Book of Job.* In pursuing our inquiries, we shall perceive that this greater density of the atmosphere, in an antediluvian world, will account for the gigantic size of the animals and plants, whose fossil remains, modern times have revealed to us. It would also account for an increased temperature in climate; and perhaps, too, be connected with the extended term of human life in the antediluvian world; since a diminished density, would be accompanied with, not only a change of temperature, but a change in the hygrometric character of the atmosphere. Such an increase of density presupposes the absence of clouds and of rain in the primeval world, while its attenuation would account for the deluge of waters,

*Job xxxviii. 10.

which would then descend from the aerial medium; and on the completion of the purposes for which this mighty catastrophe was designed, clouds, for the first time, would be seen suspended from on high; and for the first time also, would the "bow of promise in the storm" be "set in the heavens," and be seen by the patriarch. Had it been seen before, its being seen again could not, in itself, be an apt symbol of peace, and pledge of security. We have stated, that there is no mention, in Sacred History, of rain having fallen in the antediluvian world; and, from the greater mass of water that would be suspended in an atmosphere possessing an increase of density, with the total absence of clouds secured by that increased density, nothing would interfere, except winds, with the formation of dews, which would be, from these combined circumstances, very copious and uniform. It may be asked, and the question has certainly been often put, What has become of the surplus water of the deluge? We have already stated, that the mountainous chains, which diversify the surface of the globe, may be now much higher than they were in antediluvian times; but if they really be not, the fossils they embed are sufficient proof that they must have been submerged; and though we altogether unable to account for the disappearance of the waters, the fact of the circumfusion of these waters, and the palpable proofs that both hemispheres of the globe have been simultaneously submerged, cannot be controverted. However, when we reflect on the immense expenditure of water which has entered as water of crystallization into the composition of fossiliferous rocks, and diluvial and alluvial strata, it will account satisfactorily for a vast proportion if not the entire quantity. The electricity of the earth, and perhaps that of the heavens, may have, in like manner, been incessantly in operation in resolving the subterranean waters, and the atmospheric vapour, into gaseous constituents. Though the waters only "prevailed on the earth for one hundred and fifty days," it by no means follows, that, when they were " assuaged," or

began "to abate," they were so soon reduced to their present limits. Centuries might have rolled away

before they had contracted their bounds to the dimensions that now restrain them. Seeing that a universal deluge is confirmed by testimony of the most satisfactory and complete kind, a very obvious question arises, How did the patriarch gain the extraordinary intimation of the coming deluge and prepare such a remarkable medium of escape from the catastrophe? There is no other conceivable method of accounting for it but by a direct and positive communication from the ALMIGHTY CREATOR. Calmet has some very pertinent remarks connected with this question. "The labour (of constructing the ark) was long; this was not the work of a day; he must have foreknown so astonishing an event a considerable time previous to its actual occurrence. Whence did he receive this foreknowledge? Did the earth inform him, that at twenty, thirty, forty years' distance it would disgorge a flood?-surely not. Did the stars announce that they would dissolve the terrestrial atmosphere in terrific rains?-surely not. Whence, then, had Noah his foreknowledge? Did he begin to build when the first showers descended? This was too late. Had he been accustomed to rains formerly-why think them now of importance? Had he never seen rain-what could induce him to provide against it? Why this year more than last year;-why last year more than the year before? These inquiries are direct: we cannot flinch from the fact. Erase it from the Mosaic records; still it is recorded in Greece, in Egypt, in India, and in Britain: it is registered in the very sacra of the pagan world." "It implies a communication from GOD to man." 66 "By faith, Noah-being warned of GOD-of things never seen as yet-in pious fear-prepared the ark (Kibotos) to the saving of his family-by which he condemned the world." All geologists are agreed on the question of the recent formation of our continents, and they cannot be justly considered older than the period assigned, by Sacred Chronology, to the deluge. Dolomieu, an acute