.M. Fray ssiiious's -Defence of ChrManify, - 91 



dences transmitted by the most remote antiquity, which tend to 

 support the traditions of that great event. He examines it, in 

 the last place, with reference to its chronological relations. On 

 this subject, we have to observe, that MM. Champollion have 

 shewn thai the chronology of the Seventy, adopted by the fa- 

 thers of the church, is sufficient to account for all the facts re- 

 corded in history. As to the means which God employed in 

 producing the deluge, this, although treated by the Bishop at 

 great length, is a subject of little importance in itself; the figu- 

 rative language of the sacred historian affords no precise infor- 

 mation on this point, except that he speaks of extraordinary 

 rains, which he must. mean by the cataracts of heaven. God 

 could undoubtedly have disposed of the elements at his will ; but 

 without having recourse to incomprehensible means, and viewing 

 the deluge as it ought to be viewed, that is to say, as confined to 

 the part of the earth then inhabited, some less general phenome- 

 non will suffice to account for it. 



The only point of importance to be estabUshed is, that the 

 deluge was not universal. Respectable authorities are not awant- 

 ing in support of this opinion ; we might, among others, ad- 

 duce the testimony of Mabillon, who maintained this opinion at 

 a meeting of the Congregation of the Index at Rome, where it 

 was admitted by the nine cardinals who assisted. The object 

 of the deluge was the destruction of the human race ; it was 

 therefore unnecessary to bring a general cataclysm over the parts 

 of the earth that were not yet inhabited. Moses calls it univer- 

 sal merely with reference to the then known earth ; but he did 

 not certainly comprehend under it America and New Holland. 

 This interpretation, while it is more consistent with reason, and 

 more accordant \^ ith geological observations, which formally re- 

 pel the idea of cataclysms and perturbations of all kinds, cannot 

 be considered as contradictory to the spirit of the sacred text. 



Ferruscu:. 



Remarks on the Nature of Sound in Water. By MM. Colla- 

 Sr DON and Sturm. 



W E shall now offer a few remarks on the nature of sound in 

 water. The first relates to the duration of sound in water. 



