1823.] Prof, Henslow on the Deluge. 545 



nature far greater even than that which it is brought to' explain. 

 The main difficulty which seems to strike all those who have 

 hitherto considered the subject, appears to lie in the method of 

 getting rid of the waters of the Deluge. Many will grant you 

 that they came, if you can show how they departed. Amidst 

 all the conjectures that have been offered on this point, sufficient 

 stress does not appear to have been laid upon the idea, that they 

 may not have departed ; but that the waters which " were 

 increased greatly upon the earth " are still with us. I shall offer 

 a few remarks upon this subject, rather with a view to promote 

 future inquiry, than with the wish to propose a new hypothesis. 

 I shall assume that the flood which we are informed prevailed 

 for 150 days, consisted of waters at that time added to the earth, 

 and leave to the future consideration of geologists, whether the 

 supposition of their having been partly absorbed by the solid 

 portion of the earth is not of itself a cause sufficient to explain 

 the present state of the surface of our planet. 



Suppose the original level of the surface of the ocean to have 

 been the line A, and an increase of waters to have raised the 

 surface from A to B, sufficient to cover the tops of the highest 

 mountains; I would ask whether, if the increase were rather 

 sudden as it is stated to have been, we may not imagine that a 

 considerable depression below the highest level would afterwards 

 take place, owing to those solid portions of the earth which were 

 not originally covered, becoming saturated with moisture ; and 

 thus, after a certain lapse of time, the surface of the ocean 

 might rest at C, leaving the higher summits of the old continents 

 again exposed. To decide whether or not such may have been 

 the case will of course require that future observations should 

 be made with this object in view. There are, however, certain 

 facts already noticed in geology which tend to show that an 

 mcrease of elevation above the original surface of the ocean has 

 actually taken place ; such as peat land, containing vast num- 

 bers of trees, which are found in some situations extending under 

 the bed of the ocean, and whose destruction appears to have 

 been coeval with the Deluge. Also the swampy condition of 

 large tracts of fen country, which are now incapable of produc- 

 ing timber, but in which immense quantities of the largest growth 

 are found buried in a sound state. If it should be objected that 

 the mass of waters brought upon the earth was far too great to 

 admit of the supposition of their having been absorbed to aa 



