272 Proofs of tie Deluge. [Book VI. 



body V Specimens of this defcription are frequently 

 found. 



Not only vegetables, however, but . parts of ani- 

 mals alfo, are met with, deeply plunged in the ftrata 

 cf the earth, for the prefence of which, in fuch fitua- 

 tions, we cannot account) except by fuppofing, that 

 they were depofited during the deluge, when not only 

 the windows of heaven were opened, but the fountains 

 of the great deep were broken up ; expreflions which 

 denote, in the ftrong ftyle of oriental imagery, the ex- 

 tenfivenefs of that vaft difturbance or convulfion 

 which happened to this globe. A foffil fkelefon of 

 an alligator, twelve or fourteen feet in length, was dif- 

 cfcvered in the cliff of an alum rock, near Whitby, in 

 Yorkfhire. In a gravel pit of Suffolk, abounding 

 with foffil fhells, the entire fkeleton of a whale was 

 difcovered, the bones of which, when they became 

 friable by expofure to the air, were employed by a 

 farmer for the manuring of his land. Fragments of 

 an elephant's tooth were dug from a gravel pit at the 

 end of Gray's Inn Lane, at the depth of twelve feet. 

 From thefe and other facts it feems probable at leaft,that 

 this part of the world, before the flood, contained ani- 

 mals as well as plants which now are very rarely found, 

 or are totally incapable of exifting in fuch a climate. 

 This confideration will lead us to conclude, that the 

 deluge not only deftroyed the greater part of the ani- 

 mals then exifling, but produced a considerable altera- 

 tion in the conftitution of the globe, and a permanent 

 revolution in fome of the laws of nature, of which the 

 change that took place in the length of human life is 

 one ftriking inftance. The earth, and almoft every 

 part of it, is flored with the remains of trees, plants, 



* Le Pluche Speft. de la Nature, Dial. 25. 



and 



