Geological Society. 69 



determinate portion of time,) been covered by one general but tem- 

 porary Deluge. The opinion was not hastily formed. My reasoning 

 rested on the facts which had then come before me. My acquaintance 

 with physical and geological nature is now extended j and that more 

 extended acquaintance would be entirely wasted upon me, if the 

 opinions which it will no longer allow me to retain, it did not also 

 induce me to rectify. New data have flowed in, and with the frank- 

 ness of one of my predecessors, I also now read my recantation. 



The varied and accurate researches which have been instituted of 

 late years throughout and far beyond the limits of Europe, all tend to 

 this conclusion, that the geological schools of Paris, Freyberg and 

 London have been accustomed to rate too low the various forces 

 which are still modifying, and always have modified, the external 

 form of the earth. What the value of those forces may be in each 

 case, or what their relative value, will continue for many years a 

 subject of discussion j but that their aggregate effect greatly sur- 

 passes all our early estimates, is I believe incontestably established. 

 To Mr. Lyell is eminently due the merit of having awakened us to a 

 sense of our error in this respect. The vast mass of evidence 

 which he has brought together, in illustration of what may be called 

 Diurnal Geology, convinces me that if, five thousand years ago, a 

 Deluge did sweep over the entire globe, its traces can no longer be 

 distinguished from more modern and local disturbances. The first 

 sight of those comparatively recent assemblages of strata, which he 

 designates the Eocene, Meiocene and Pleiocene Formations, (unknown 

 but a few years ago, though diffused as extensively as many which 

 were then honoured with the title of universal,) shows the extreme 

 difficulty of distinguishing their detritus from what we have been 

 accustomed to esteem Diluvium. The Fossil Contents of these for- 

 mations strongly confirm this argument. M. Deshayes has shown 

 that they belong to a series unbroken by any great intervals, and 

 that, if they be divided from the secondary strata, the chasm can 

 have no relation to any such event as is called The Flood. 



Further, the elephants and other animals once supposed to be ex- 

 clusively Diluvial, are now admitted to be referrible to two or three 

 distinct epochs ; and it is highly probable that the blocks of the Jura 

 Mountains, of the North of Germany, of the North of Italy, of Cum- 

 berland, Westmorland, &c, are not the waifs and strays of one, but 

 of several successive Inundations. 



It is, Gentlemen, a well-known rule of such institutions as ours, 

 that the "Authors alone are responsible for the facts and opinions 

 contained in their respective productions." Under that feeling have 

 I spoken on the present occasion, and having freely set before you 

 what has occurred to me on some points of general interest to our 

 science at this time, I think it my duty, in concluding this address, 

 to disclaim and deprecate any attempt to connect what I have here 

 expressed with the general sentiments of the Geological Society. The 

 opinions I have uttered are my own, and I should be sorry that 

 more importance should be attached to them than they intrinsically 

 deserve, from the accident of their having been delivered from this 



