160 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



summoned the rivers to his palace, and commanded them 

 to pour forth their strength. 



" Hi redeunt, ac fontibus ora relaxant, 

 Et clefraenato volvuntur in aequora cursu. 

 Ipse triclente suo terrain percussit ; et ilia 

 Intremuit, inotuque sinus patefecit aquarum."* 



There can be no doubt that a destructive inundation, 

 general throughout the East, occurred in the early history 

 of the Mediterranean race. Neither is it to be doubted 

 that well-known natural causes have been adequate to 

 the production of such an inundation. As the upheaval 

 of some portion of the Alps, in the period just before the 

 advent of man, sent a destructive inundation over a large 

 part of Europe, so the uprising of some portion of the 

 mountains of the Caucasus f may have been accompanied 

 by the emission of such quantities of watery vapor as by 

 condensation to deluge half a continent. Such a visita- 

 tion, by whatever natural cause effected, has been wit- 

 nessed, if we may trust abundant traditional and semi- 

 historical evidence, by the early representatives of our 

 race in western Asia. 



The hydrographic changes which have transpired in 

 northern China are among the most extensive and re- 

 markable that have been witnessed by man. On all except 

 the most recent maps of China, the Hoang Ho, or Yellow 

 River, is represented as having its outlet in the Yellow 

 Sea, near the city of Hwaingan, in latitude 34. During 

 the Taiping rebellion, a few years since, the course of this 



* " They return and open the mouths of their fountains, and roll in a torrent 

 unrestricted to the sea. Himself, with his trident, strikes the earth; it trembles, 

 and by the motion opens the secret place of the waters." 



t According to Dr Abich. the upheaval of all the higher portion of the chain 

 has involved strata of Tertiary age. 



