S9^ OBSERVATIONS OX SUARON TURNEr's 



adhere to the Mosaic account of the Creation, he believes every 

 species of animal and vejietable, the fossil as well as the recent, to 

 have been created durintr the four last days of the Mosaic creation : 

 that during the 1656 years which intervened to the deluge, the 

 "whole of the secondary strata were deposited, and that the diversity 

 of the fossil species found in various formations is owing to their 

 being diffused, gradually and at different periods, from the point at 

 which each species was first created. The tertiary strata he refers 

 to the action of the deluge, affirming them (p. 464) " to have been 

 formed from the fracture, the ruins, the disintegration, and decom- 

 position of those which had preceded them." This last assertion is 

 very far from the truth. The upper surface of the chalk does 

 indeed exhibit signs of violent destructive action, but this was 

 succeeded by a long period of repose, in which the beds of plastic 

 and London clay were deposited, conformable to the chalk and to 

 each other, and containing the most delicate shells in the most 

 perfect state of preservation. In the Isle of Wight basin a local 

 disruption took place between the London clay and the lower 

 freshwater beds, but in the Paris basin the whole tertiary series 

 from the chalk to the upper freshwater is perfectly conformable, 

 and is evidently the peaceful deposit of a long succession of years. 

 The fact is that it is only the deposits termed "diluvial beds" which 

 can, with any sort of probability be referred to the Mosaic deluge, 

 and they exhibit phenomena so nearly accordant with what the 

 effects of such a deluge would be, that few geologists hesitate so to 

 refer them. The tertiary formations then must be referred to 

 a similar origin with the secondary, whatever that origin may be. 



We shall now attempt to shew that the secondary and tertiary 

 strata could not have been deposited in the interval from Adam to 

 Noah, and shall subjoin a few remarks shewing how the phenomena 

 of geology may yet be reconciled with the Mosaic account. 



Mr. Turner supposes that in this antediluvian period the different 

 races of animals and plants were gradually extending themselves 

 into new regions. This may, indeed, account for the appearance 

 of new species in the more recent strata, but it docs not explain 

 the extinction of the old ones. The creation of fresh species 

 seems ever to have gone hand in hand with the extermination of 

 previous ones, and in examining a collection of fossils in the order 

 of the strata, we are ever losing our old acquaintances and forming 

 new ones at each step. 



A gradual modification of the genera of fossils is also percepti- 

 ble : the most ancient strata contain fossils totally unlike any 

 known animals of the present day, and the fossil remains gradually 

 become more modernized in character, till, in the newest of the 

 tertiary strata, we find species identical with those now living. 

 All this shows a repeated renewal of the creative power ratheif 

 than a single exertion of it. 



Mr. Turner would suppose the antediluvian period in which, 

 according to him, the secondary strata were deposited, to have been 

 one of physical repose and tranquillity. Yet these strata exhibit a 



