130 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



modern men are mixed, or seem to pass into each 

 other, in others, as in the Swiss, Belgian and Lebanon 

 caves and in the superficial deposits, there is a dis- 

 tinct separation, implying an interval accompanied by 

 physical change between the time of the earlier 

 and later men. 



Such considerations as these, the force of which 

 is most strongly felt by those best acquainted with 

 the methods of investigation employed by geologists 

 and archaeologists, are forcing us to conclude : (i) 

 That there are indicated in the latest geological 

 formations two distinct human periods,^an earlier and 

 a later, characterised by differences of faunae and of 

 physical conditions, as well as by distinct races of 

 men. (2) That these two periods are separated by 

 a somewhat rapid physical change of the nature 

 of submergence, or by a series of changes locally 

 sudden and generally not long-continued. (3) That 

 it is not improbable that this greatest of all revolu- 

 tions in human affairs may be the same that has so 

 impressed itself on the memory of the survivors as to 

 form the basis of all the traditions and historical 

 accounts of the Deluge. 



This being the state of the case, it becomes 

 expedient to review our ideas of the ancient Hebrew 

 records, from which our early, and perhaps crude, 

 impressions of this event were derived, and to 

 ascertain how much of our notions of the Deluge 

 of Genesis may be fairly deduced from the record 

 itself, and how much may be due to more or less 



