CHAPTER X 



SPECIAL QUESTIONS RESPECTING THE DELUGE 



IN studying the literature relating to the Deluge, we 

 are constantly met by questions as to its so-called 

 ' universality.' Was it a local or universal Deluge 

 and if universal in what sense so ? This is a point 

 in which neglect or ignorance of the necessary 

 physical conditions has led to the strangest miscon- 

 ceptions. 



It is obvious that there are four senses in which a 

 catastrophe like the Deluge of Noah may be affirmed 

 or denied to have been universal. 



I. It may have been universal in the sense of 

 being a deep stratum of water covering the whole 

 globe, both land and sea. Such universality could 

 not have been in the mind of the writer, and probably 

 has been claimed knowingly by no writer in modern 

 times. Halley in the last century understood the 

 conditions of such universality, though he seems to 

 have supposed that the impact of a comet might 

 supply the necessary water. Owen has directed 

 attention to the fact that such a deluge might be as 



