SI 2 Geological Phenomena eocplained 



it of 2800 miles in diameter will be submerged, buried under 

 the Frozen Ocean ; and the extreme slowness of the motion of 

 the pole, which takes nearly 1000 years to traverse France, 

 will cause the duration of the deluge on any one spot to be 

 nearly 4000 years : the question is not, therefore, at what time 

 the deluge took place (for it is now in operation), but at what 

 period it took place in a given spot. 



On examining our globe, we shall find that, 8280 years 

 since. Grand Cairo was in the first meridian *, and in lat. 67°, 

 or within the polar circle. That epoch we may therefore 

 consider as the middle period of the deluge; and, from the 

 configuration of the earth's surface in those parts, we may 

 fairly assume that the waters did not retire until the pole had 

 moved to Warsaw, or 1700 years afterwards, which brings 

 the end of the deluge down to 6580 years. I am ashamed to 

 have kept father Noah and his animals nearly 4000 years in 

 the ark ; but it is the fault of the pole of the equator, and 

 not mine. 



Baron Cuvier has filled nearly half his volume on the 

 revolutions of the globe, with a dissertation to refute the pre* 

 tensions of the Egyptians and Chaldeans to a high antiquity. 

 By our globe the question is decided at the first glance. 

 Egypt and Chaldea, about 6000 or 7000 years since, had been 

 buried in the Waters of the pole for perhaps 4000 years; which, 

 I think, must be considered as fatal to the pretensions of the 

 Egyptian priests and their chronology. Indeed, if we wanted 

 any positive proof of the imposture of these " sages," we shall 

 find it in the story they told Herodotus of the sun having at 

 two periods in their annals risen in the west. It is evident, 

 from a simple inspection of the globe, that at no period of 

 time could this happen.f 



Before we quit Egypt, we will attempt to solve by our globe 

 a curious point of chronology, the period of the construction 

 of the pyramids. 



The late M. Nouet, astronomer to the expedition of Egypt, 

 found, from the most careful observations, that they were 

 placed due north and south, declining to the west only 19^ 58^^ 

 Now, we learn from Proclus, in his Hypotyposes, or repre- 

 sentation of astronomical hypotheses, that even in his time the 

 learned knew of no other method of tracing a meridian than 

 the inexact one now in common use for fixing sundials ; and 

 as 19' 58'^ are little more than one minute of time, it proves 



* By first meridian is to be understood the parallel of longitude which 

 intersects the two poles. 



f If we regard the tradition as correct in point of fact, we may be led to 

 suppose that the Egyptians are a colony from Abyssinia. 



