126 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



their character. Further, since the historical Deluge 

 must have been of very limited duration, the physical 

 changes separating the deposits containing the re- 

 , mains of palaeocosmic men from those of later date 

 would in like manner be accounted for, not by the 

 slow processes imagined by extreme uniformitarians, 

 but by causes of a more abrupt and cataclysmic 

 character.' l 



We may proceed to inquire as to whether the 

 position which we have now reached is likely to be 

 permanent, or may represent merely one shifting 

 phase of opinion. For this purpose we may formu- 

 late these conclusions in a few general statements, 

 merely referring to the evidence on which they arc- 

 based, as any complete discussion of this would 

 necessarily be impossible within the limits of this 

 work. We may first summarise the present position 

 of the matter as indicated by historical and scientific 

 research, altogether independently of the Bible. 2 



i. The recent discovery of the Chaldean deluge 

 tablets has again directed attention to the statements 

 of Berosus respecting the Babylonian tradition of a 

 great flood, and these statements are found to be 

 borne out in the main by the contents of the tablets. 

 There is thus a twofold testimony as to the occurrence 

 of a deluge in that Babylonian plain which the Old 



1 See also Howorth, The Mammoth and the Flood, and papers by 

 Professor Prestwich in Journal GeoL Society and Trans. Royal Society 

 and by Andrews, Winchell, and others in America. 



2 See articles by the author in The Contemporary Review, Decem- 

 ber 1889, and in The Magazine of Christian Literature, October 1890 



