Buckland's ReliquitB DiluviancB. 347 



face ; and the certainty of this fact has been established in several places, 

 where, from the bursting of dykes, the water has made excavations 

 through the alluvium into the subjacent diluvium, and washed up form it 

 the teeth and bones of the extinct elephant and other animals, wliich are 

 peculiar to that formation. 



We are sorry that we have neither space nor time for more ex- 

 tended quotations from this part of the work before us, which, 

 though less captivating to the general reader than the history of 

 the dens and their inhabitants, is, in a geological point of view, re- 

 plete with important and essential data ; and as we discover among 

 the pebbles that constitute thi^- diluvial gravel not merely the 

 wreck of the adjacent inland districts, but also large blocks of 

 primitive and transition rocks which do not occur in England, 

 and which can only be accounted for by supposing them to have 

 been drifted from the nearest continental strata of Norway, we 

 must admit that a diluvial current from the north is the only 

 adequate cause that can be proposed, and that satisfies the con- 

 ditions of the problem. 



In reference to this subject Mr. Buckland has given a summary 

 of facts selected from various authorities, and from his own exten- 

 sive observations, which tend satisfactorily to explain the great 

 transportation of materials from one district to another at the period 

 of the deluge, and which also elucidate the excavation of valleys, 

 and develope the general causes of those minor irregularities which 

 are engraved upon the earth's surface. The general shape of hills 

 and valleys ; the immense deposits of gravel and boulders, evi- 

 dently immoveable by any streams now existing; the nature of 

 these rounded fragments ; the condition of the organic remains 

 that accompany them, and the analogous occurrence of similar 

 phenomena in all regions of the world hitherto investigated, are 

 such decided and convincing proofs of the universality of the dilu- 

 vial inundation, as must, independent of any other evidence, over- 

 rule all objections and difficulties connected with this very im- 

 portant subject. That there are difficulties to be removed, dis- 

 cordances to be cleared up, and doubts to be obviated, INIr. Buck- 

 land does not pretend to deny ; but it is probable that these will, 

 at length, be removed by the extension of observations, physical 

 and geological, conducted upon the plan so ably laid down and 

 successfully pursued in the work before us. 



In conclusion, we shall only remind our author of the excellent 

 advice and instructive observations of the President of the Koyal 

 Society, on presenting him with the Copley medal for his original 

 description of the cave at Kirkdale, printed in the Philosophical. 

 Transactio7is for the year 1822. On that occasion Sir H. Davy 

 took a luminous view of the importance and bearings of such re- 

 searches, and suggested, in terms at once explicit and eloquent, 

 the line of inquiry most likely to promote and perfect them ; and 

 the honours, thus conferred by the Royal Society, seem not to have 

 been scattered upon barren ground, for to them we apparently owe 



