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Did not Noah refide On the borders of the fouthern ocean, other- 

 wife he could not fee that the great abyfs was opened ? and did 

 ■not an inundation from the fouth-eaft drive the ark north- weft 

 to the mountains of Armenia ? Thefe conjedures are at leaft 

 confiftent with the moft probable notions of the primitive habitation 

 of man, which I take to be near the fources of the Ganges (as 

 Jofephus expfefly mentions) the Bourampooter and the Indus, from 

 which, as the temperature grew colder, mankind defcended to the 

 plains of India. 



This unparalleled revolution Mofes informs us was introduced 

 by a continual rain for forty days. By this the furface of the earth 

 muft have been loofened to a confiderable depth ; its efFedls may 

 even have been in many in many inftances deflrudive ; thus in 

 Auguft 1740 feveral eminences were fwept away, nay the whole 

 mountain of Lidfheare, in the province of Wermcland in Swedeuy 

 was rent afunder hy a heavy fall of rain for only one night. 27 

 Schwed. Abhand, 93. This loofening and opening of the earth 

 was in many places where the marine inundation ftagnated an 

 ufeful operation to the foil fubfequently to be formed, as by thefc 

 means fhells and other marine exuviae were introduced into it 

 which rendered it more fertile. By this rain alfo the fait water was 

 diluted, and its pernicious efFeds both to foil and frefh water fifh 

 in great meafure prevented. The deftrudion of animals ferved 

 the fame purpofes, and might, in many inftances, be neceffary to 



N n 2 fertilize 



