S76 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 



" * 1. The general shape and position of hills and valleys ; the former having 

 their sides and surface universally modified by the action of violent waters ; and 

 presenting often the same alternation of salient and retiring angles that mark the 

 course of a common river. And the latter, in those cases which are called valleys 

 of denudation, being attended with such phenomena as shew them to owe their exis- 

 tence entirely to excavation under the action of a retiring flood of waters. 



" * 2. The almost universal confluence and successive inosculations of minor 

 valleys with each other ; and final termination of them all in some main trunk which 

 conducts them to the sea ; and the rare interruptions of their courses by transverse 

 barriers, producing lakes. 



" * 3. The occurrence of detached insulated masses of horizontal strata, called 

 outliers, at considerable distances from the beds which they once evidently formed a 

 continuous part, and from which they have at a recent period separated by deep and 

 precipitous valleys of denudation. 



" * 4. The immense deposits of gravel that occur occasionally on the summits of 

 hills, and almost universally in valleys, over the whole world, in situations to which 

 no torrents nor rivers, (such as are now in action) could have drifted there. 



" ' 5. The nature of this gravel, being in part composed of the wreck of neigh- 

 bouring hills, and partly of fragments and blocks that have been transported from 

 distant regions. 



" * 6. The nature and condition of the organic remains deposited in this gravel ; 

 many, though not all of them, identical with species that now exist ; and very few 

 having undergone the process of mineralization.' 



" Their condition resembles rather that of common grave bones than of those 

 fossil bones which are found imbedded in the regular strata ; being in so recent a 

 state, and having undergone so little decay, that if the records of history and tha 

 circumstances that attend them, did not absolutely forbid such a supposition, we 

 should be incUned to attribute them to a much later period than the Mosaic Deluge, 

 and certainly there is, in my opinion, no single fact connected with them, that should 

 lead us to date their origin from any more ancient era. 



" ' 7. The total impossibiUty of referring any one of these appearances to the 

 action of ancient or modern rivers, or any other causes that are now, or appear ever 

 to have been, in action since the last retreat of the diluvian waters. 



" ' 8. The analogous occurrence of similar phenomena in almost all regions of 

 the world that have hitherto been scientifically investigated, presenting a series of 

 facts that are uniformly consistent with the hypothesis of a contemporaneous and 

 diluvian origin. 



" ' 9. The perfect harmony and consistency in the circumstances of those few 

 changes that now go on ; e. g. the formation of ravines and gravel ; mountain 

 torrents ; the depth and continual growth of peat bogs ; the formation of tufa, sand- 

 banks, and deltas ; and of the filling up of lakes, estuaries, and marshes. These 

 changes are progressive, and have been so from the last great catastrophe of the 

 earth, and their present state perfectly coincides with the hypothesis which dates the 

 commencement of all such operations at a period not more ancient than the Mosaic 

 deluge. 



** All these, whether considered collectively or separately, present such a general 

 conformity of facts tending to establish the universality of a recent deluge, as no 

 difficulties or objections, that have hitherto arisen, are in any way sufficient to 

 overrule." 



ON THE PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VEGETABLE 

 ORGANIZATION. 



On the evening of the 14th of April, a lecture " On the Progressive Develop- 

 ment of the Vegetable Organization," was delivered before the Worcestershire 

 Natural History Society, by Dr. Streeten. After stating that the subject formed 

 a counterpart to the Development of the Animal Organization, so ably treated by 

 Mr. Walsh upon a former occasion, the lecturer proceeded to describe a globular 

 vesicle, as affording the most simple idea of a primary cell. The Lepraria viridis, 

 or powdery green substance, so common on trees, old palings, and m damp situa- 

 tions, was instanced as apparently consisting of these simple vesicles, shghtly 



