I 



Dr. Beke on the Alluvia of Babylonia aiid Chaldcea. 4'29 



Having then shown that " there occurs, at a rough calcu- 

 lation, a distance equal to, at the least, 70 miles, between the 

 limits of the latest deposits by transport and the plain of 

 Babylon*," Mr. Ainsworth proceeds to argue, that "as the site 

 of Babylon is separated by a wide extent of deposits of a dif- 

 ferent nature from the latest deposits by transport which belong 

 to the basin of the Euphrates, it is evident that it is impossible 

 to reconcile the supposition of these latest deposits by trans- 

 port being identical with the Noachian deluge, and of the 

 deposits which intervene between them and the soil of the 

 Tower of Babel, having been deposited in the short interval 

 of time between the Deluge and the dispersion of man- 

 kind t." 



He therefore concludes, that " the alluvium of the Eu- 

 phrates divides itself distinctly into that which was ante-Ba- 

 bylonian (being also ante-Noachian) and that which is post- 

 Babylonian ; and the comparatively large extent of ante-Ba- 

 bylonian alluvium contains whatever matters the great cata- 

 clysm deposited upon the surface of the earth :{:." 



But in coming to this result, Mr. Ainsworth does not ap- 

 pear to have considered a further conclusion which must 

 necessarily follow from his premises. It is, that if the al- 

 luvial deposits of the basin of the Euphrates, consisting, as 

 he informs us, of " clays remarkable for containing an ex- 

 cess of chloride of sodium or marine salt §," and extending 

 from the neighbourhood of Feliijah as far as the sea " to the 

 exclusion of all other formations ||," be partly of aiite- and 

 partly of post-Noachian origin, then the Noachian deluge it- 

 self has, in point of fact, left no intervening traces whatever 

 of its separate existence ; and as such an event, let it have 

 originated as it may **, could not possibly have happened with- 

 out leaving traces, and those strongly marked ones, of its oc- 



veyed the whole of this tract, and, on his geological responsibility, shall 

 have, established we will not say, but, found reasonable grounds for con- 

 jecture, that at the date assumed by Mr. Beke the sea did advance so far 

 inland, we shall bow to his authority.'' 



It is therefore most gratifying to me to be able thus to appeal to Mr. 

 Ainsworth as an authority for the fact that the alluvial deposits do acliially 

 extend so far inland as I had asserted. Their date is now the only point in 

 question. 



* p. 10.5. 



\ pp. 104, 105. — Mr. A. accordingly considers these latest deposits by 

 transport to be the remains of a cataclysm anterior to the Noachian de- 

 luge. Seep. 101. : p. 107. § p. 105. || p. lOG. 



** Mr. Ainsworth cites without disapprobation my construction of the 

 Hebrew words " fountains of the great deep," as meaning the " clouds ;" 

 whence I attribute the Flood to rain alone, bee OW^'. BibL, p, 31 9 cl scq. 



