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fenfe, as the only one that appears perfedly confiftent, with all 

 the phoenomena now known, of which I fliall find occafion to 

 mention many; he plainly afcribes it to a fupernatural caufe, 

 namely the exprefs intention of God to punifli mankind for their 

 crimes. We muft therefore confider the deluge as a miraculous 

 efFufion of water, both from the clouds and from the great abyfs ; 

 if the waters, fituated partly within and partly without the caverns 

 of the globe, were once fufficient to cover even the higheft moun- 

 tains, as I have fliewn in the former EfTay, they muft have been 

 fuiEcient to do fo a fecond time when miraculoufly educed out 

 of thofe caverns. 



Early geologifts, not attending to thefe fads, thought all the 

 waters of the ocean infufficient ; it was fuppofed that its mean 

 depth did not exceed a quarter of a mile, and that only half of the 

 furface of the globe was covered by it ; on thefe data Keil com- 

 puted that twenty-eight oceans would be requifite to cover the 

 whole earth to the height of four miles, which he judged to be that 

 of the higheft mountains, a quantity at that time confidered as 

 extravagant and incredible, but a further progrefs in mathematical 

 and phyfical knowledge has fince fhewn the difterent feas and 

 oceans to contain at leaft forty-eight times more water than they 

 were fuppofed to do. 



Mr. De La Place, calculating their average depth, not from a 

 few vague and partial foundings, for fuch they have ever been, 



(the 



