be turned into ridicule, and that this has been the fate of the greatest discoveries that have ever dawned on the world of intellect, or benefited mankind. Ridicule, therefore, is not the test of truth. While the foregoing remarks are submitted as subjects for reflection, and subsequent investigation, we are by no means prepared to limit the trophies of future research, which may eventually reveal the living analogues of many genera and species which have been too hastily pronounced to be extinct. Modern discovery has unfolded strange sights, and its torch is not extinguished. We may only mention the clamyphorus, or shield bearer; the ikan dugong, or mermaid of the Indian seas; and above all, the six-legged animal of Stronsay, and the ornithorhynchus paradoxus* of New Holland. A few years ago the trigonia was pronounced to be an extinct genus, but its living analogue has since been found on the coast of New Holland. The sentence of extermination had also already been passed on the pentacrinus, when Mr. Thompson discovered a living species, the pentacrinus europæus, in the ture. This anomalous animal possesses a very reinarkable struc It is distinguished from all mammiferous animals yet known, by the extraordinary formation of the jaws, which closely resemble the broad flat bill of a duck; covered like the latter with a soft inembrane supplied with nerves, as an organ of taste; and serrated also like the bill of a duck, at the lateral edges. Its feet are provided with webs, which, in the front ones, project beyond the claws, and can therefore be expanded or folded up like a fan. No trace of mammæ can be detected in either sex. There is a spur on the hind leg of the male of this curious animal, which it has been asserted possesses the property of injecting poison into the wound it inflicts, similar to what takes place in respect to that of the poisonous fang of a serpent. We have been informed, however, that Mr. Joshua Brookes, by a careful inspection, has not been able to discover any poisonous sac; or hollow duct connected with a gland. Our own particular examination of the structure of the spur has not detected any aperture or sulcus: we are therefore inclined to believe that this is a mistake. The habitation of this wonderful creature is on the verge of the lakes in the vicinity of Botany Bay. Cove of Cork; and a living analogue of the pentacrinus has also been ascertained to exist on the coast of Barbadoes. Modern research is perpetually adding new species, and even new genera, both of plants and animals, to the former acquisitions of the mind, and enhancing the amount of the captive spoils of human enterprize Counterparts in magnitude, equivalent to the gigantic structure of the mammoth, may not be found in the genus to which it belongs; but our globe has still its terra incognita. The discovery in 1818, by Dr. Arnold, in the Island of Sumatra, of that magnificent Titan of the vegetable kingdom, the Rafflesia Arnoldi, is too recent an event to be forgotten. The human mind had scarcely ever conceived of such a flower:-the circumference of the full expanded flower is nine feet,-its nectarium calculated to hold nine pints,-the pistils are as large as cows' horns, and the entire weight of the blossom computed to be 15lbs. Temple, in his recent travels in Peru, states that he shot a condor, and from notes taken on the spot, gives us the following dimensions of its size. "When the wings are spread, they measure forty feet in extent from point to point; the feathers are twenty feet in length, and the quill part eight inches in circumference." This certainly draws largely on our credulity, and seems almost to realize the fabled Roc of Sinbad; but we do not know that we are authorized to reject it. In the year 1719, a condor was shot in France: the extent of wing, from tip to tip, when fully expanded, was eighteen feet. A quill feather of one from Chili, measured twelve feet four inches ;-the diameter of this quill was half an inch, and the extent of wing sixteen feet. The least of these certainly far exceeds the dimensions of the lämmergyer or bearded griffin of the Alps. Wherever we turn our eyes, the fame of the deluge meets us: "There is no speech nor language where its voice has not been heard :" "Its line is gone out through all the earth, and its words to the end of the world."* The four divisions of the globe have heard * Ps. xix. 3, 4. of this event, and have told it to their "children's children." Lucian, from the archives of Hierapolis, gives an account of the deluge, the main features of which do not materially differ from the details of the prophet of the Hebrews. He tells us that Deucalion was the only one saved; that it was on account of his piety; that this was effected by means of a great ark, which he and his wife occupied; that there were also therein, along with them, goats, horses, lions, serpents, and such other animals as live on land-two of each; that all were rendered harmless, and all floated in one ark, λàpvana, as long as the waters prevailed. Plutarch mentions the dove which was dispatched by the patriarch from the ark. This author states, that the dove, being sent from the ark and returning, became a certain index of the prevalence of the tempest; but, its flying away proved that the storm had ceased. Juvenal thus records the event of the deluge and the ark: "Ex quo Deucalion nimbis tollentibus æquor And Ovid thus speaks of it: "Hic, ubi Deucalion (nam cætera texerat æquor) Corycidas nymphas, et numina montis adorat. ONTO ΠΟ The Mexicans believe, that the original pair, from whom their ancestors sprung, were saved from the deluge by floating on a raft. We give the fac simile of a medal, in second brass, which refers to this belief. It is one of the coins of Pertinax. By the stars over the figures, we infer their deification. Indeed, there is no difficulty in identifying the patriarch and his wife with the Osiris and Isis of Egyptian mythology; and it seems HW to us, that the figures, which Mr. Rich has copied from a Babylonian brick, refer to the same fact. The Boat Baris is a conspicuous figure in the mythology of Egypt. In the most ancient book of the Chinese, which is called chouking, mention is made of one of their deified personages, named Yao, who is there represented as drawing off the waters of the deluge, which had rendered impassible the lower levels, submerged the lower hills, bathed the skirts of the highest mountains, and risen up to the heavens. Yao is antedated at about 4166 years, or thereabouts, before the present period, which remarkably coincides with the chronology of the Sacred Volume. M. Cuvier has an interesting and apposite observation in reference to the epocha of the deluge:"Is it possible," says this distinguished philosopher, "that mere accident should afford so striking a result as to unite the traditional origin of the Assyrian, Indian, and Chinese monarchies to the same epocha of about 4000 years from the present time? Could the ideas of nations who possessed almost no natural affinities; whose language, religion, and laws, had nothing in common; could they conspire to one point did not truth bring them together?" We shall, before adducing geological facts in confirmation of an universal deluge, advert to the celebrated Apamean medals;— one of these, (Plate II, fig. 15,) is that of the elder Philip; and the other, (Plate II, fig. 17,) of Pertinax: in the former, it is extremely interesting to observe, that on the front of the ark is the name of Noah, NE, in Greek characters. The design of these medals remarkably corresponds, though the legends somewhat vary. In both we perceive the ark floating on the water, containing the patriarch and his wife, the dove on the wing, with the olive branch; and the raven perched on the ark. The medals, also, represent Noah and his wife on terra firma, in an attitude of devotion for their safety. On the pannel of the ark, in the coin of Pertinax, there is the word NHTON, perhaps a provincialism from Nãoos, an island, or New, to swim. In the exergue of this medal we read, distinctly, AПAMENN, as we do also in that of the other; the first syllable terminating the first line. The genuineness of the Apa mean medals is confirmed beyond all doubt by the researches of the learned Mr. Bryant. Ortelius recognizes six cities of this name; the most celebrated was Apamea, in Syria; next to which was that of Phrygia, called also Cibotus, or Kibotos, as a surname ;-the Greek word Kiẞwtos, signifying an ark or hollow vessel. This city was built on the river Marsyas, near which, tradition states, the ark finally reposed. Accordingly, we find on a medal, struck in honour of the emperor Adrian, the inscription, ΑΠΑΜΕΩΝ ΚΙΒΩΤΟΣ MAPEZIA, or "the ark and the Marsyas of the Apameans. There were numerous traditions commemorating this event; and several cities, while they boasted of the distinction, appealed to it in proof of their antiquity. This Apamea, which ranked in importance next to Ephesus, is doubtless that to which these medals refer. The surname would not, in all probability, have been adopted on an insufficient and unsubstantial basis. Besides these, however, there was a city bearing this name in Bithynia; and, according to Strabo, another in Media. Our representations in the plate are copied from Sequin's "Selecta Numismata Antiqua." We may, therefore, state, that the evidence on this question is universal and conclusive. The Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Goths, and Druids, Persians, Hindoos, Burmese, Chinese, Mexicans, Peruvians, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, the inhabitants of Western Caledonia, the Otaheitan and Sandwich Islanders; all have recorded the event of the deluge, and it is incorporated in their annals. This universal testimony is wonderful, and we should think amply sufficient to satisfy the most sceptical mind. Josephus says, in reference to this event, "Now all the writers of the barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this ark; among whom is Berossus the Chaldean. For when he was describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus: It is said, there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyæans; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use 6 |