they really took place. But, on the one hand, these hypotheses must be welcome to exegetes in so far as they are calculated to make the narrative of Genesis more plausible, and they may endure before the judg ment-seat of natural science if it can be proved that they do not go beyond anything which men of science have themselves admitted to be possible. We will therefore ascertain whether these hypotheses can be reconciled with the teaching of geologists on the former conditions and events in the history of the earth, which is based on their scientific observations and conjectures.

An English' geologist thinks it probable that the earth was originally a ball, and attained to its present spheroidal shape by a sudden upheaval under the equator. By this means a change in the distribution of land and sea was likewise produced, for instance, what had long been the bed of the sea in the tropics became a continent, as the Desert of Sahara, and, on the other hand, in the polar regions dry land became the bed of the sea; a considerable change in the climatic conditions also took place in consequence of this. At any rate, such a catastrophe, if it occurred, as the author supposes, in the time of Noah, might have produced a flood like the Deluge. Other men of science, both ancient and modern," think it probable

upheaved in America, Noah would hardly have known about it, and there is no apparent reason why God should have revealed physical events of this kind to Moses; but even if we suppose that the sacred historian did know them, there is still no reason why he should have recounted them.” -Pianciani, p. 519.

1 C. B., Geology, etc., p. 321.

2 Fr. Klee, Der Urzustand der Erde, und die Hypothese von einer Aenderung der Pole. Eine geologisch-historische Untersuchung über die sogenannte Sündfluth-katastrophe. Stuttgard 1843.

that the inclination of the earth's axis to its plane was not always the same as it is now. If the axis round which the earth revolves daily were at right angles to the plane in which it revolves round the sun, there would be no alternation of the seasons; all parts of the earth would have equally long days and nights. The change of the seasons and the difference between the zones as they exist, is caused by the fact that the axis of the earth varies 23 degrees from a horizontal position. If the axis had formerly stood upright, or more upright than at present on the plane, the climatic conditions would then have been materially different from what they are now; and if the change in the position of the axis had taken place suddenly, it might have sufficed to produce catastrophes as considerable as the Deluge.

But both hypotheses are probably too bold. As regards the last, Burmeister no doubt only says that no decisive grounds could be found for supposing that a change took place in the position of the earth with reference to the sun, and that therefore this hypothesis has lately been given up.' This, as you see, is a very mild condemnation. But others, and especially Sir J. Herschel, express themselves more strongly against it.2

Let us therefore put aside these hypotheses. It is asserted by nearly all modern geologists as a fact which is almost certainly established, that other climatic and atmospheric conditions did exist formerly

1 Geschichte der Schöpfung. p. 269.

"The least alteration in the earth's axis would cause the sea to overflow the land. But there has never been, and for astronomical reasons there never could be, any change in the axis of our planet."-Herschel, Physicalische Geographie. Ausland, 1863, p. 985.

Burmeister says,

on the earth; and this in most cases without any reference to the Deluge. 'A comparison of the primeval with the present organisms, leaves no doubt that the present age is markedly different from the most recent preceding epochs. Even in the Tertiary or Cainozoic period, that is, in the last geological period before the recent period, the temperate zone seems to have been rather warmer than it is now; this is proved by many of its animal inhabitants, which in our days have chosen out the tropics as a home."1 "All countries inhabited by organic beings," he says in another place, "might well have had a higher even temperature, and a tropical character." 2 One of the most remarkable inferences," says Quenstedt, "from the nature of the buried fauna and flora of the Tertiary age, is that of the greater mean temperature. Not only do single plants or animals bear out this conclusion, but the variety of form in whole classes of animals, as, for instance, shells, sufficiently proves it. We may certainly assume that, in this comparatively late age, a subtropical climate existed in our latitudes." 3

Geologists have made various conjectures as to the causes of the change in the climatic conditions. Lyell brings forward the hypothesis, which Quenstedt calls a happy expedient, that the greater warmth in former ages was connected with a more favourable distribution of the land. If there had formerly been more land, or if the present land had gathered round the equator instead of the north pole, it must have

1 Gesch. der Schöpfung. pp. 269, 451.

3 Sonst und Jetzt, p. 151.

2 P. 271.

4 P. 152.

had a great influence on the quantity of warmth ; because the land is more heated by the sun's rays than water is, and because the intensity of the sun's rays increases from the pole to the equator. Here you see we have a parallel to the hypothesis that a change in the distribution of land and water may have been connected with, and have caused, the Deluge.

If the Deluge was connected with a change in the atmospheric and climatic conditions, this change must have been a sudden and not a gradual one. For this assumption also, I find analogies in the hypothesis formulated by geologists, without reference to the Deluge or to the Bible. According to the opinion of many men of science, says Burmeister,1 many geological facts point to the conclusion that "the last great catastrophe" in the history of the earth "occurred both very suddenly and violently." Many think that "the transition from the preceding to the present period was heralded by a remarkable and sudden sinking of the temperature in the Northern Hemisphere," and the Glacier theory mentioned above is connected with this. Thus, whatever we may think of the hypothesis, we see that geologists do not look upon great and sudden changes in the conditions of the earth as being a priori impossible.

If, in order to explain the overflowing of the sea, we suppose that upheavals and depressions of separate parts of the earth's surface occurred, geologists are the last people who can make any objection; for such upheavals and depressions play an important part in every system of geology. "We have many proofs," says an

1 Gesch. der Schopfung. p. 246. * Burmeister, pp. 246, 272.

4

"1

English geologist, "that important sinkings of the land took place at a comparatively recent epoch.' According to Vogt, a settlement of the land followed the Glacial period, which I have just mentioned, in the north of Europe and of America, and the land subsequently rose again. In the theory of the elevation of mountains, which Elie de Beaumont first brought forward, and which has been supported by many modern geologists, it is assumed that the biggest and highest mountains are the most recent; the Cordilleras, one of the most extensive and highest mountain ranges, being perhaps the most recent of all.3 Burmeister places the most violent and tremendous of these convulsions in the period immediately preceding the historical age. Even if they occurred singly, and were of small extent, could not such settlements and upheavals have taken place in the historical epoch, and have caused inundations? The circumstance that in the year 1822, 1000 miles of the coast of Chili were raised four feet in one night by an earthquake," and that in 1819 more than ninety geographical square miles of the delta of the Indus were turned into a lake by a settlement of the land following on an earthquake, show that this is not impossible, and that tolerably important upheavals and settlements can occur."

We can say nothing about the manner in which the Deluge was connected with such settlements and

4 Ibid.

1 De la Beche, Manual of Geology, p. 172.
2 Lehr. der Geol. i. 622. 3 Burmeister, p. 265.

Pfaff, Grundriss, p. 133.

H. Miller, Testimony, p. 298. Pfaff, Grundriss, p. 138.

p. 272.

5 Natürliche Gesch. der Schöpfung. p. 127. Mantell, Wonders, i. 81.